Melting the Ice
by Barefoot-Pianist
Summary: OCDM. Upon arrival of an exchange student to the cold castle of Hogwarts, the lives of the students are flipped up-side-down and the icy core of their hearts begin to melt... please R&R! Chapter 15 up!
1. First Impressions

Disclaimer: Ok, I'm sure you all know this, but I don't own any of the characters – all except Leah of course! I don't mess with the power of "god" (aka J.K. Rowling) just wish that I belonged to her magical world!

A/N: Alright, here's the fact – this is my first fanfic ever and so I'm not so experienced in the art of fiction writing… so just bear with me please. If there's something wrong or you want to let me know of any mistakes or anything else as a matter of fact, just review me or you can send me an email. Well, hope you enjoy! Happy reading, Mia xx

Chapter 1: First Impressions

A pair of hazel eyes looked up from a fur-lined grey hood to the huge castle with thousands of tiny pinpricks of light coming from with in. A lock of dark brown hair fell into those eyes, and hand bearing a silver ring in which a ruby was crested between two serpents, hastily brushed it behind her ear. She struggled to keep up with every thing that passed her eye sight, but failing to take in everything. She sat forward on the edge of her seat in the silent carriage as she took in a deep breath. Her gut made a slight somersault when the carriage stopped suddenly after pulling up a steep driveway, right in front of a pair of great oak doors. Her knees bucked a little as she stepped down from her carriage and up the stone steps. She turned to see the carriage roll away and slowly faced the deep oak doors. Her hand shook too, as she lifted her fist and paused for a moment and grasped the brass door knocker. She gave three strong knocks and she stood waiting in the night. The door opened almost immediately and a short, grouchy man came to stand in front of the opening, his eyes slightly bulging.

"Yes?" he snapped, a little too loud. 

She recoiled somewhat but regained her confidence and replied, "I'm sorry to call to late, but I'm an exchange student from Durmstrang Institute…"

"Ah, right you are. We were expecting you around now," he hastily said. He continued, "Just come this way, and your luggage should have arrived in your dormitory by now. The students are having dinner just now, and I'm guessing you haven't had supper yet. You'll be a little late, but that won't matter." The man wore a mouldy brown coat that showed off the hunch in his back as he dragged his feet a little. 

She followed behind him, unwilling of his presence. After climbing several stair cases, they arrive at yet another oak door, but slightly smaller this time. She could hear a crowd of people behind the door and delicious smells of roast and warm gravy waft to her nose. It was only then that she realised how exhausting her trip was. She could almost feel the empty hollowness in her stomach as she ached for food. 

The man opened the door to reveal four long tables stretching down the great hall and at the furthest end, another long table where there were adults seated, busily talking and eating. All along the tables there were students, all in black, seated with plates piled with food and talking loudly and happily. Curious faces turned as the man lead her down the middle isle to the teachers' table at the far end. Slow, it felt as she followed the man, and she could see people whispering and pointing at her. A cold zap of electricity ran up her spine as she realised how vulnerable she was. She was in a new school, with people she didn't know, and with new experiences and new things to learn, she didn't know what to expect and what to do. But nothing prepared her for what came next. 

As she finally neared the head table, she came to notice a tall man who you could tell of his age by his beared, long enough to reach his stomach. She peered in amazement at his features; bright blue eyes and a crooked nose. For he was 'wild' it seemed, but she could not place any other word except this. But perhaps, only 'wild' to a certain extent, as his smile shone with kindness and wisdom that could make you think that 'wild' would be the last thing you could expect of him. He sat at the centre of the table, obviously showing his importance in the school hierarchy. 

"The exchange student from Durmstrang, Professor Dumbledore," the man introduced.

"Thank you Mr. Filch, that will be all," the headmaster replied. As the man walked away, the headmaster gave her a warm smile. "Welcome Leah, I'm sure your journey to Hogwarts has been long and extremely tiring. I invite you to sit and make yourself at home. You will be spending your time here with those of Slytherin House, whose table is to your far right. I'll be getting your Head of House to guide you and find you a friend to look after you during your stay with us. Severus!"

A man with a large hooked nose and greasy black shoulder length hair came striding up to stand by her side. He hardly wore a smile, let alone show any lips compared to the head master and didn't wear any feeling of welcome either.

"This is Professor Snape, your Head of House and also your Potions teacher," Dumbledore introduced. Snape curtly said, "Come this way," and stalked past her. She walked behind him with reluctance to a table furthest to the right.

Faces turned again as she walked her way towards the middle of the long table. Snape finally lead her to a group of girls who seemed a little annoyed at the interference to their cosy conversation. 

"Ah, Miss Parkinson," Snape said as he faced a girl with black hair and features not unlike a pug. "This is our new exchange student from Durmstrang, Miss Leah Harrison. She will be staying with us for the course of this year, and I expect you to make her feel very welcome. She will be sleeping in your dormitory and you will be looking after her until she finds her feet." The girl didn't look so pleased, but seeing as it was her duty from her Head of House, she took on. Snape, despite his word of welcome, didn't match the tone in his voice. He faced Leah and said, "I'll hand you your timetable tomorrow morning at breakfast," and with that, he turned and left.

Leah sat down at the table next to the girl and immediately went for the mashed potatoes. "So…" was the girl's attempt to start up a conversation. She repeated, "So, you're from Durmstrang, eh? We've heard a lot about you." 

"Oh, really?" Leah looked up from her plate piled high with food. "Like what?"

"Vell, ve though you vould be speaking like zis."

"I live in England, unlike some people from Durmstrang you've met, who live locally."

"Oh, right." Showing little interest, Leah doubted that she even listened at all. The girl continued to persevere in conversing, "Well, I guess you're part of the Harrison family. You're well known among us, pureblood families. Oh, by the way, my name is Pansy Parkinson." Pansy extended her hand, and Leah took it some what gingerly. Pansy looked to her side, as if just realising that her group of friends were beside her, "And this is Blaise Zabini, Elise Gashmorre, Millicent Bullstrode and Melissa Evans. Everyone, this is Leah Harrison. She'll be joining us in Slytherin, girls. She's our new best friend," she said giggling, which Leah didn't take to, too easily. 

It was only when Pansy and her friends got back into their conversation and Leah had finished what she had on her plate, that she realise who she was sitting next to. She turned to see a boy with broad shoulders, over shadowing her. But as she tried to see her way past him, she saw another boy of similar stature sitting next to him. She tried to keep from staring at the boys, until her attention was pulled away by the tables clearing of the nearly empty dishes and reappearing with platers of cakes and pies, and bowls of jelly and ice cream. 

She dug in once more and decided she'd try some custard pudding to her left. Too far to reach, she asked the boy next to her, "Sorry to interrupt, could you just pass me that bowl of custard pudding?"

He turned and looked down at her to say, "Er…" when he was interrupted by a cold drawling voice.

"Here," a blonde boy with cold grey eyes to match his voice, grabbed the bowl and placed it in front of her. "Don't mind him. You must be that exchange student. I'm Malfoy, Draco Malfoy, and this is Crabbe and Goyle," he waved carelessly towards their direction. "So, what's your name again?" he asked.

"Leah Harrison," Pansy piped in. "She's from Durmstang if you didn't know. And she'll be staying with us Slytherins."

"Pansy, please stop stating the obvious. And if you don't mind, I was asking _her_," he drawled on, putting a little force in his tone to warn her of his annoyance.

"Sorry," she said sulkily. Malfoy rolled his eyes and kept on going, "Part of a pureblood family, eh? You might already know of my family being pureblood. My family's one of the oldest in England, actually," he went on boasting. "So, what do you think about the other families? You know, those half and full muggle families? Personally, I don't think they deserve to be here. Father always says that magical education should be restricted to those of full magic blood."

"Well, I don't think it matters," she said.

Malfoy chose to ignore her comment and continued to talk to his friends, who looked at him blankly, not quite catching on to what Malfoy was saying. 

Taking some dislike to her new acquaintances, she continued to help herself to the custard pudding.

Finally the plates were cleared once more, and the attention of those in the room had turned to the head table. Dumbledore now stood up and looked around at the faces occupying his school. "I'd like your attention please," he said. "I will be making this very quick, so please bear with me. Tonight, as some of you have already seen or even met, we have a new student in our midst. This of course, is Leah Harrison who is a student at Durmstrang Institute. Because of the current situation with the war against Voldemort, (people around Leah and herself winced) Leah is here on exchange so to strengthen bonds between the schools around us. Now, Durmstrang, as some of you already know, is somewhere north in this world and she has made a long and very tiring southbound journey to Hogwarts. I want all of you to make her feel very welcome and to help her if she ever gets stuck in a problem. For her stay with us, she will be looked after by the Slytherin House, so most of the responsibility to look after her is placed on them, particularly those of sixth year. Leah, I hope your stay with us can be as enjoyable as possible. Thank you, now off to bed!" he finished with a smile.

Leah could feel her face get steadily red during Dumbledore's speech and fiddled with her ring, but now everything was over, people came past to say a quick word or some who weren't as bold, walked as close to her as possible to get a good glimpse of her. Pansy and her friends didn't look so pleased with all the attention Leah was getting and protectively lead her away by the arm and steered her in the direction of their common room.

Corridor after corridor, stair case after stair case, Leah tried to keep track of all the turns as they steadily went downwards into the dark castle. The group finally came to a bear wall of cold stone. Anybody who would have had to lose their way to as far as here would probably miss it totally. But to what seemed to be a solid wall like any other, Pansy said, "Parselmouth."

Leah, who hadn't expected anything, looked at her confusedly.

"It's the password," Pansy explained. "You'll have to know this password, otherwise you won't be able to get in…that is, unless you wait outside for someone to open it for you," she said giggling. "Do you remember that stupid Neville boy sleeping on the stairs because he didn't know the password to his dorm? That stupid git," and they all burst into laughter as they walked into the low, dimly lit common room – that is, all except Leah. 

Leah just walked behind them, oblivious to the humour in Pansy's comment. They walked past couches of polished black leather and old-fashioned carved chairs with a low coffee table in the centre. A fireplace was roaring in one corner, perhaps not quite giving off the friendly warmth a fire usually possessed. 

Pansy lead her down yet another stair case to a room in the shape of a hexagon. On every second wall, a four-poster bed with green hangings was placed and from one wall was a small passage from which Leah could see another room like the one she was standing in. Pansy walked off with Blaise, Melissa and Millicent into the other room, leaving Leah standing with Elise. Leah looked over to the closest bed on the right to see her luggage at the foot of the bed. She ran to her bed and began to search for something.

"What are you looking for?" Elise, a brunette with long straight locks, said. 

"My pet snake," she replied. She was half expecting her to run away screaming, but to her surprise, she became even more fascinated. "Really?! God, I've always wanted one. What kind of snake is it?"

Somewhat balled over at her enthusiasm, she said, "It's a rare species of the Royal Python. Her name's Krysta, by the way." Leah finally found her curled up in her cauldron asleep, and Elise ran to get a good look at her. Krysta, who had woken up with Leah's light touch, opened her eyes and started to coil around her warm neck. Indeed, Krysta wasn't an ordinary snake; her scales patterned in elegant swirls and on her forehead, between her sparkling eyes was a single, square-cut ruby. Elise stood fixated at the snake, fascinated. She finally snapped out to look Leah in the eye and say, "You better not show that to Pansy, she's terrified of them."

"Um, ok, thanks for that," Leah said as she put Krysta back into her cauldron.

It was lucky that Leah had put away Krysta, for Pansy came striding in. "Well, it's you, me and Elise in here, Leah. The other three are in the other room. I guess it's time to get to bed. We can leave 'the ritual' until the morning, can't we Elise?" she said with a mysterious smile, as if trying to suppress herself from saying a secret or a juicy bit of gossip.

Elise looked uneasy at this but said, "Yeah, ok."

Leaving Leah confused, they got changed into their pyjamas and go into bed. Leah thought to herself before she fell asleep, _I wonder what 'the ritual' is. Well, I've come this far, I can't go back now. What ever it is, it can't be that bad can it?_ And with a final yawn, she fell into a deep sleep.


	2. The Ritual

Disclaimer: I do not own any of these characters apart from Leah. 

A/N: Hey everyone! I had a fun time writing this so I hope you're having just as much fun reading it. sorry for the delay, but for the confusion in the first chapter, I didn't know that Blaise Zabini wasn't a girl, and once I started writing it, it all became too much to change it all over again. So, in this story, Blaise will be a girl. Happy reading! Mia xx

Chapter 2: The Ritual

Leah woke up the next morning to a shrill scream. She abruptly sat up and faced Pansy, pale faced and shaking, a comb stuck in her knotted hair, pointing at one of the poles of her four-poster bed. Leah's eyes took time to fucus onto the pole, which started out into a blurry black line that rapidly formed into a pole with something rapped around it. 

It was Krysta. Leah jumped out of bed, memories of last night rushing to her head. As she neared her snake, pansy screamed, "Don't touch it! It'll bite you!"

Elise who had also woken up at the sudden scream, trying to suppress her giggles, said, "Don't worry Pansy. It's Leah's. Her name is Krysta – don't you think she's lovely?"

"You have a name for that _thing?" Pansy said eyeing the snake as if it was a dragon, as Leah gently brought the snake down to her arms, the snake protectingly coiling around Leah._

"Yes, I do. By the way, your comb's stuck in your hair. Do you want me to take it out for you?" Leah offered, taking a step towards Pansy.

Pansy rushed to her bed and took out her hand mirror, and pointed it to Leah threateningly, "Not with _that_ thing on you."

"Look, I'm sorry that Krysta gave you a fright, but she's the friendliest of creatures if you let her be one. See," she said as she stroked under the head of the snake with her finger. Pansy gave a shudder and put her mirror down on to her bed side table.

"Ok, but don't let that _thing _get near me, or I might kill it." Pansy gave the snake a gingerly look, and turned to getting her comb out of her tangled hair. 

Elise was smiling as she came over to Leah. "Can I hold it?" she asked.

"Sure," Leah said as she untangled Krysta from her arm and placed her around her neck. Krysta lifted her head to meet Elise's and came close to her nose. Krysta slithered her tongue out just enough to tickle her nose, and lowered her head to rest it on her shoulder. Elise looked please at this, and Leah said, "She likes you, you know." Elise's face positively glowed at her comment and gave Leah a huge grin.

Leah walked out of the great hall with her timetable in hand and the taste of fresh strawberries and toast in her mouth. She checked her timetable to see she had Divination first. She would have known better if she had been a student there, but unfortunately, no one warned her of their mysterious teacher. She walked in the direction in which the Slytherin common room was from her memory, but soon found herself very lost. She started to worry that she may never find herself out of the maze-like corridors. Thoughts of never ending corridors leading her further and further away from the people she knew, kept on lingering in her head, until she met Malfoy in dark green robes – Quidditch robes. He hurried back towards her, hot and sweaty, and showed off his perfect teeth as he growled at her. "What do you want?" 

"Sorry, I need to find my way to the Slytherin common rooms, do you think you could help me?" she tried to put on her 'helpless and clueless' face to persuade him to get her there.

He walked past her and got to the end of the corridor. He turned and said, "Well, what are you waiting for – an engraved invitation? Are you coming or not?"

Leah ran to catch up to him and silently followed behind him.

They reached the common room, to find Pansy sitting on the couches with her group of friends. Pansy looked up said, "Ooh, you've got a girl friend now, Draco," her voice sounding a little poisonous than mocking.

Draco narrowed his eyes at Pansy and said, "It's always polite to help out a guest you know, Pansy. I thought you were meant to look after her."

Pansy glared at Malfoy as he walked past her and down a different stair case to the boys' dorm. Leah made her way to their group and sat down at one of the couches. "So, um, what's this 'ritual' thing you were talking about last night?"

Pansy looked up, her eyes glinting, "Funny you should say that. We were just discussing when we should do it."

Leah suddenly felt a pang of uneasiness. Pansy continued, "Our group is quite close, you see – "

"We're practically sisters," piped the broad-shouldered Millicent.

Pansy continued, annoyed of Millicent's little insert, "Yes. As I was saying, each of us had to prove our loyalty, and perform a task that the other group members set you. And we were wondering if you were game. So, what do you say? It's not everyone that gets this opportunity you know, and we'll grantee you that we'll stay loyal, if you stay loyal. I suggest you choose very carefully."

Leah sat silently, aware of all five girls looking at her, waiting for her critical choice. Melissa interrupted her thoughts and said, "So, what's it going to be?"

Leah took in a sigh and only said, "Alright."

If she had looked up, she would have noticed Pansy's eyes glimmer dangerously at her proposal. "Ok, we'll let you know what you have to do, tonight."

Leah stayed sitting down, while everyone got up, all except Elise. She looked weary as if persuaded in what she didn't want to do. Leah looked up to see her coming over and sitting next to her. Leah could feel her struggling to find appropriate words in which she wanted to tell her. Leah waited patiently.

"You're going to have to be careful you know. I almost wished you hadn't chosen to accept the task. But I'll try and help you, ok? How about you stick with me for today, and I'll fill you in on what you need to know." 

Leah nodded silently, feeling a heavy weight sink in her stomach. This was the last thing she wanted to admit, but there was no denying it. She was scared. Leah gave Elise a friendly smile to show her gratitude and asked, "So, do you have Divination first?"

"Yeah, we do, and don't be too excited – it's really boring. But then again, it's a real bludge," she said showing a little more colour.

Elise and Leah came out of their first Divination lesson, feeling slightly off touch with the smell of incense lingering around their noses. But that soon was replaced and Elise said, "lucky you. You are definitely now her new victim. But I guess Pansy's happy about it – she's been taking a lot of slack from Trelawney for the last four years. Trelawney always has a victim in her class and she pretends to see things and so on about that person's death. But in the last 17 years or so that she's been doing her routine, no one's ever gotten a worse injury than a broken bone." 

Leah gave a quick laugh and said, "Well, maybe we can't blame her. Imagine spending day and night in that room. That incense is strong enough to get a dragon to see stars." They made their way down the corridor. 

They walked down the corridor stepping rhythmically in time, occasionally bathing in sun light for a moment and back into the shade, until Pansy stepped her way in front of them. She had one hand on her hip which made her look like 'the boss' which was precisely what Pansy wanted.

"Elise, Girls' meeting, now. In the Transfiguration room," she turned towards Leah, "Sorry, we just have to steal her for a sec and you can have her back. It's just a little private, you know, just between us girls. But don't worry, you'll be just like one of us… when you finish the task," and turned and left.

Since Leah still had 15 minutes until her next class, she decided to sit on one of the sunbathed ledge of the corridor, took out her book and started reading.

She was managed to be interrupted by two girls who had spotted her shortly after she started the next chapter of her book. The two girls wore black cloaks with an emblem of a lion embroided to the breast. The shorter of the two shot out her hand with a wide grin and said with very clearly articulated words, "Hi, my name's Callisto Reid and this is my friend Annie Griffiths. We're both Gryffindor House sixth-years. So how are you enjoying Hogwarts?"

"Fine," Leah said shaking the hand, a little overwhelmed of the sudden appearance. "It's really nice here – definitely not as cold," said Leah. 

Annie, who looked a little disappointed said, "I thought you'd have an accent." 

"I live in England," Leah added and Annie just quietly said, "Oh…"

It was at that moment that Elise returned and saw the two Gryffindors standing, talking to Leah. She instantly rushed up to her, took her by the arm and pulled her away, as Leah quickly said good bye over her shoulder. 

"What are you doing?" Elise asked seriously. 

"What are _you_ doing?" Leah asked, confused.

"Saving your -"

"And I was just talking to them. Is that so bad?" Leah added now a little annoyed.

"As a matter of fact, yes. _They are in Gryffindor and _we_ are in Slytherin. Those two don't match. _We_ don't talk to them, _they _don't talk to us. We're as different to them as chalk is to cheese. It's a big boo-boo if a Slytherin mixes with a Gryffindor or vice versa," Elise said, still grasping firmly at her arm._

Leah retorted, "But I'm _not_ a Slytherin. What's _your_ business got to do with mine?"

"Because you are looked after by us. It would mean that you would put a stain on our reputation."

Leah ignited at her comment and said, "Is that all you care about? Your reputation? God, I thought you weren't as shallow as those other girls in your group are. I thought you had more morale." Leah felt her anger subside as each word left her mouth, but with each word, it lead to another spark in Elise's temper. Her ears reddened and she tried with all her might to keep her voice from erupting, which in turn, was made into a growl, "Look, I don't like it either, and I think it includes my friends too. Don't start judging us before you know us, alright? I'm just trying to keep my head low enough so that it doesn't get cut off my some other Slytherin who cares, ok?" At these words, Leah felt a pang of guilt and quietly said, "Sorry," which Elise returned gruntingly, "It's ok."

The day somewhat passed slowly after that, and things remained a little awkward between the two, but Elise stuck to her promise and showed Leah the way around the huge castle. The awkwardness continued until dinnertime, when Elise and Leah had met up with Pansy, Melissa, Blaise and Millicent. However, Pansy had been enjoying her chat with the rest of the group and left Elise and Leah to talk quietly to themselves in which Elise took the opportunity to continue to giving out information on the school; including the ghosts and the people. Leah gave all her attention to Elise that dinner seemed to have gone so quickly like sand through open fingers. As the group returned to the common room, Leah could steadily feel her nerves fluttering about in her stomach. But it wasn't until they had gotten back into their dormitory that the issue was faced. 

Pansy turned and faced Leah, wearing a sinister grin. Everyone else stood behind her, as if not wanting to address the challenge that was coming. "Ready?" asked Pansy.

Leah gulped and said, "Ok, I'm ready. What do I have to do?"

Pansy widened her grin, "You have to get yourself into Gryffindor. Then, when you have, you have to take something back with you, as proof of your being there."

A/N: So, everyone enjoying themselves so far? I hope so. ;) Well, you might have noticed that this story isn't for the light-hearted reader. They're all relatively the same length as the previous chapters and I'm planning on having twenty or more chapters, so make sure you're up for a big read! 


	3. Hogsmeade

Disclaimer: I don't own any Harry Potter characters apart from Leah, who is my creation.

A/N: well, here's another chapter for y'all. Enjoy, Mia xx

Chapter 3: Hogsmeade

Leah gave a sigh as she walked out of the door of the common room. She could hear the group of girls giggling as the door closed. She stood for a minute, regaining her confidence and started walking upwards. It wasn't until she had gotten to the library that she didn't know the first clue to getting to the Gryffindor common room. She sat outside the library thinking quickly at how she was going to get there. Perhaps the girls were meant to tell her but forgotten, or maybe it was part of her task. But the fact she had to face was that she was in a new school, in which she had to do something near to impossible for someone who was new, and had no idea what so ever, started to scare her. Before she became too scared, she decided to go into the library to find someone who could help her.

As she walked into the large building in which row upon row, shelf upon shelf of books were placed, stacked, and even crammed into it. She looked about her to find tables where people were reading, looking up or studying. As she looked around at each table, her eyes fell on two familiar faces. They seemed to have noticed her coming too and waved; a motion to come and join them. Leah made her way towards them.

"Hi, are you lost?" Annie said.

"Er, not really. I'm just looking around," Leah said, trying to sound convincing, both to herself and the two Gryffindors. 

"Oh, do you want us to show you around?" Callisto asked excitedly.

Leah was positively speechless at her proposal, and nodded her head before they became suspicious of her reactions.

It was half an hour later that Leah came to stand in front of a life-size portrait of a fat lady. They proceeded to climb though the hole on the other side of the portrait after saying the password ('Chocolate frogs'). Leah walked into find a fairly lage, very cosy room with assorted lounges and chairs spread around a fire crackling merrily. Leah liked this common room, much more than the Slytherin one. She felt much more at home, the friendly warmth surrounding her.

Annie and Callisto walked over near the fire and fell into the couch, and motioned for her to join them. Leah sat down on a couch, sinking comfortably a few inches. There, they started to talk.

"So, do you have a boyfriend?" Annie asked shyly, going a little red. 

Leah smiled, remembering her fond memory of home and her childhood friend and boyfriend, Chris. "Yes," she said and watched the two girls giggling, joining in herself. "He finished school last year and works for the ministry now a days. I think he lives somewhere near Oxford."

"What's he like?" Callisto asked when the giggles had subsided.

Leah thought for a moment, picking out the appropriate words to describe him. "Well, he's very sweet and conservative. But most of all he's a great friend," both of them looked confused and Leah added, "I mean, we've been friends longer than we've been a boyfriend/girlfriend. So sorry to bust your bubble, but not much has happened between us, really."

They both looked a little disappointed, like a flat tyre, but proceeded to keep the conversation going. Annie smiled a little when she said, "I finally got asked out by Dean Thomas the other day. We're going to Hogsmeade next weekend!"

Leah smiled, slightly puzzled, "Where's Hogsmeade?"

"It's the town next to Hogwarts. Actually, it's the only non-muggle town in England. It's great, the shops. The pub has the best Butterbeer too," Callisto explained.

As they sat and talked about their home, a black figure appeared though the hole. The figure came up to the fire and slid his hood off to reveal a head of messy, black hair and a pair of bright green eyes peering from under it. He smiled when he looked towards Callisto and then shifted his vision to Leah. "Hi," he said. "You must be that exchange student. I'm Harry, Harry Potter."

Leah didn't believe what she had heard at first and shifted her eye sight to his forehead to see a scar in the shape of a thunderbolt. She took in his extended hand to shake it and said, "It's nice to meet you."

"Harry's my boyfriend," Callisto said beaming at Harry.

Harry lowered his gaze to the ground, as Leah said, "Oh." 

It was clear to Leah that Harry was a little embarrassed, so Leah was careful not to look at him and changed the subject. After a brief moment, Harry excused himself to find Ron, which Leah guessed was a friend of his.

Their conversation moved to what they were going to wear to the next Hogsmeade weekend, and they climbed up a staircase to the girls' dorm to go though their clothes.

As Callisto went though several outfits and was getting changed into her fourth, and Annie had gone to the bathroom, Leah saw a red and gold striped tie lying forgotten on the ground. She creped silently and pocketed the tie. She resumed her position on the bed and waited for Callisto to come out with yet another outfit while she fiddled with her ring. 

After a further 10 minutes of going though all the clothes the two girls had, Leah was tired and felt ready to just hand the tie to Pansy and get into bed. She asked the girls to take her to the Entrance hall for she didn't know her way, and would make her way back to the Slytherin common room from there.

Once she had gotten herself to the door of the common room, she gave the password, and entered to see all five of them sitting on the couched deep in conversation. Once they had realised that she had returned, they rushed to her and started asking her questions. "What took you so long?" "What did you have to do?" "How did you get there?" But Leah didn't wish to listen and walked straight to Pansy, handed her the tie and sat down. The others sat around her as if ready to listen to a good story. Leah took this action into cue, took a deep breath and started telling her story from the start. No one interrupted her, but no one noticed Pansy looking very malicious either. Pansy clenched her teeth at the thought of Leah being triumphant. Secretly, Pansy had hoped Leah wouldn't succeed, but she cursed at the fact she didn't make her task hard enough and that the others had persuaded her to do so.  However, she pasted on a smile, congratulated her, and sat down to listen to the heroic tale.

The following week had passed by and no sooner had Leah come to Hogwarts, she was now able to walk about the school without assistance. She was also now familiar with the landscape, the teachers (and their habits) and the various corridors, stair cases and passages in the castle. 

But it was now finally the weekend and the whole castle was bustling with the sound of excited voices discussing the events that would be held during that weekend. 

Snatches of conversations remained in Leah's head from the days before, plans and places to go; the pub, a joke shop, a haunted house. Leah had never been to a non-muggle town before and was eager to go.

Even now, as she looked about from her table at breakfast, she could see a noticeable difference in the faces of the professors. Some she knew as strict and uptight, perhaps, where now a little more relaxed at the prospect of the weekend. 

She looked back down at her porridge and raspberries and ate energetically as she thought about the weekend.

Later, Leah found herself at the edge of Hogsmeade with Pansy and Elise beside her, pushing and pulling her towards shops in all directions. Book shops, clothes shops, lolly shops, shops of any kind stood around her, and happy students in black robes bustling around her. Feeling a spur of energy rush through her body, she buzzed around every shop, every corner and every shelf. Time flew as Leah made her way about Hogsmeade and she soon realised that two hours had passed and only one shop stood not looked in to. 

The Three Broomsticks stood, busy with people inside and noises of laughter and chatter coming out of the luminated windows. The three pushed their way through the crowd to the counter were Madam Rosmerta, a pretty land lady took their orders of three Butterbeers with a wide smile.

They turned to find a table to sit at and faced three figures – they were Malfoy and his goons. Malfoy sneered at them; perhaps his way of smiling, and Crabbe and Goyle stood behind him, hopeful of the chance to get their hands on some Butterbeer.

Pansy shot in from behind, "Hi Draco. Want to come and sit with us?"

Malfoy didn't look at all pleased at her suggestion, and started saying "N-," but thought better after catching Pansy's glare and flatly said "Alright."

They all sat down at a big round table and started discussing about the workload the professors had given them.

"I swear, that essay Professor Binns gave us, it's as long as I am tall. And McGonagall's not going easy on the homework either. Not like she ever does though," Pansy complained.

"Well, thanks to my mother telling Snape off for the work load he gave me the other day, I don't have any homework at all for this week. It's good that she's got a lot of influence, so I don't expect he'll make me do any home work at all for a couple of weeks either," Malfoy said looking pleased at himself. Either side of him, Crabbe and Goyle sat a little lost, but stupidly smiled as if something good had happened to them instead of Malfoy.

Elise gave them a strange look and continued the conversation. "Divination's getting a little harder; I'm running out of things to put in my homework. But she seems pleased with it anyhow." She continued to tell the boys with a sneer, "But it's lucky for Pansy – Leah's become Trelawney's new victim." Elise secretly shot a sympathetic look at Leah.

Pansy snickered, a facial expression that Leah had learned to despise. "Yeah, thanks for that."

"It's not like I really have a choice or anything…" Leah muttered.

Leah could see over Malfoy's shoulder Annie and a boy with dark features sitting huddled together, both a little embarrassed but neither unhappy of each others' presence. Leah suspected this was dark-skinned, dark-haired Dean Thomas and smiled. Two lovers - how cute, she thought. As she sat and watched the huddled couple, she realised that she hadn't received any letters from her boyfriend. She felt guilty that she hadn't written to him either, but it was his turn to write to her anyway. She didn't realise until now that she missed him so much either.

She jolted back to reality with the mention of Harry Potter. It was Malfoy, "Thinks he can walk around and expecting everyone to worship him, eh? Well, I'm not going to bow onto my knees for a crackpot idiot like him," he said oozing with disgust that you could clearly hear. Leah could hear him mutter under his breath, "_Saint Potter." _

Leah snorted at this remark, "Where'd you get that from, Draco?"

Malfoy looked at her, those cold grey eyes boring into hers, "What does it matter to a muggle-lover like you, Leah?"

Leah was quite taken aback at this, both at the fact that he knew her name and the fact that he had called her a muggle-lover. Leah felt herself burn at his remark, gave him a cold look and said, "What does it matter to _you_ that I make muggle friends?"

Elise looked cautiously between the two and quietly placed her Butterbeer onto the table. Even Crabbe and Goyle seemed to notice that something was wrong and seemed to be extra quiet, not to break the silence in such a timid atmosphere. Only Pansy made any different facial expression; she was glaring at Leah. Others that passed the table may have noticed the unfriendly environment the table had created, or maybe even seen electric sparks fly between Draco and Leah. Each of them glared at the other for the last time and both turned their heads simultaneously away – neither of them had anything more to say to the other.

Malfoy drank the rest (which was at least half) of his Butterbeer in one huge gulp, set his flask down with a thud and ordered for Crabbe and Goyle to follow him. They stalked out of the pub, Malfoy giving Leah one last, cold look and shut the door behind him. Pansy immediately set into a rage with Leah, "Why the hell did you do that? Now, we've got no company, and he'll never speak to us again!"

"What are you complaining about, Pansy? I think it's good getting a little peace now and again, with his boasting and racist comments. The way you talk about him would make others think that Malfoy is God or something," Leah said, her temper getting the better of her.

Pansy reddened in the cheeks and pursed her lips, still glaring at her. Leah had had enough, and stood up, the chair making a high pitched dragging sound as she did so. Everything else went a blur as Leah stormed out of the Three Broomsticks, down the high street and up towards the castle.

A/N: so what do you think? R/R please!


	4. Krysta

Disclaimer: Ok, I'm getting quite sick of saying this, so I've decided this is going to be the last. I don't own any of the characters (except for Leah and Elise). There, that's the final disclaimer for the duration of this story, hope you enjoyed it.

Chapter 4: Krysta

A gloomy fortnight had passed since Leah was last in the Three Broomsticks. She was mainly solitary during her days, sometimes talking to Elise, but only for brief periods. People had gotten to know her by now and its result of people mainly leaving her alone. She was that week's flavour; something new that people were curious to poke their nose into, but now she became a normal sight and it seemed that fame had only lasted a minute, not five. 

Things had perhaps cooled down between Pansy and Leah, but there was still an air of uneasiness whenever they were in the same room – which applied to most of the time, considering most of her lessons were with her. They both talked to each other as minimally as possible and talking very politely whenever they had to. 

However, Malfoy still kept a thick wall of spite between himself and her; never talking to her and only looking at her to throw her acidic looks through his narrowed, grey eyes. Several times, Leah had passed him in the common room while she did her homework. Often Malfoy was in sodden quidditch robes after a hard practice session, carrying his Nimbus Two Thousand and One over his shoulder and other times in his school robes, coming back from a prefects' meeting or patrolling the corridors. 

She would try her hardest to keep her gaze from wondering in his direction so not to get her temper up and suppress her urge to shout at him. After all, she'd like to think that she was 'over' him and she didn't have anything else against him, but she also knew that there was still a little bit of resentment inside her bubbling and boiling, waiting to erupt. But so far, she was doing well in her standards and keeping herself concentrated on her work. 

It was a Sunday night that Leah sat in front of the common room fire as the weather got colder and colder drawing up to December. As she finished the last of her essays, she heard a loud rapping at the small window towards the top of the wall. There sat a handsome barn owl, her family owl, with a scroll of parchment tied to one of its legs. Leah struggled to drag a heavy chair which had a mind of its own to stay where it was and became heavier as she put more force on it. As she finally got the chair under the window, she carefully climbed onto it, not sure of the chair's reactions, pried open the window and untied the letter, seeing the window wouldn't open enough for it to got inside. Leah slumped onto the chair as the barn owl flew off to find some food, opened the roll and started reading the neat writing Leah had become so familiar with.

_Dear Leah,_

_Hi honey. How are you and how is your time at Hogwarts? I hope you've made many friends yet? Although I've had wind from your friends at Durmstrang that they are missing you. I'm fine and also your father, but things are getting busy for him at the ministry. Perhaps his workload will become less in time._

_I've also gotten word from Chris that he hasn't been able to send you his letter with his owl because she's got a bad case of owl-pox. You should look at her, Leah – she's a right mess. But he handed me his letter to you to send it with this one. Be sure to send him a reply – he really wanted to talk to you I think, and I guess he'll use the owl you send off your letter with._

_Well darling, I've got to dash. I'm sorry this letter had to be so short, but I promise to write you a longer one next time. Have a wonderful time,_

_With lots of love,_

_Mum_

Leah set the letter from her mother on the armrest beside her, a familiar warm feeling spreading in her chest, and started to read the next letter with a bit of a smile and a little skip in her chest.

_Hi Leah,_

How are you? I'm fine. I think my work for the ministry of magic has doubled in the last six months – quite depressing, really. Well, how's school? Any new school buddies yet? I know what starting new schools are like, but you're not going to be there for long, right? So don't worry, you'll be back home where you belong in no time.

_I heard that Harry Potter goes to your school, in fact, he's in your year, isn't he? Have you met him yet? If you have, is he like what I've been reading in the _Daily Prophet_? It's funny though, since You Know Who's appeared, they've totally changed their thoughts on him. First, he was a senile maniac and now he's the world's greatest hero. But then again, I wouldn't mind if I got that much publicity. _

_But_ _I guess you can't believe everything in these reads now a days. They always manage to twist the truth a bit. They make the most boring things into what might be the next England Quidditch World Cup or something._

_Well, that's enough of my babbling, and I'm sure I'm starting to lose you so I'll end it there. But I hope you'll be writing to me soon, won't you? Citrine's caught a bad case of owl-pox so I'm sorry if my letters will be late in getting to you._

_Hoping you're having a good time and missing my favorite friend,_

Chris 

He wasn't quite a boyfriend, Leah knew, but he wasn't a bad friend either. He had his very effective techniques of cheering you up or making you feel better of the situation you were bogged in. She let a little smile crack her face and put the two letters in her pocket so not to forget. 

She sat quietly staring into the flames of the darkly lit room, thinking back to her home and her friends she had for the last six years. There were only two dear friends, Chris and Anastasia. Chris became a more intimate friend, but Ana was perhaps her only friend at Durmstrang, full of Dark people who kept to their own business and in Leah's opinion, weren't very cooperative and easy to be with. Durmstrang wasn't as big as Hogwarts, so everybody was capable of knowing everybody else who went there. Many of them seemed to be family friends so there were may groups of friends that didn't ever mix – similar to the relationships of Gryffindor and Slytherin, only far more. Ana was different from the rest, though. She didn't believe in groups and Dark magic and made sure she stood out from the rest. 

However, Leah was a creature of habit and didn't mind spending her time there. Of course, she didn't know any different but she was happy with her old ways. Ana was constantly badgering her to be different but never succeeding. This never annoyed Leah, perhaps she just registered Ana to be like that. It's funny how life turns out, Leah thought, all the people life creates and the ones you meet…

Leah finally awoke from her thoughts and scooped up her essay, shoved it blindly into her school bag and walked towards her dorm. 

When she entered, she saw Krysta lying lazily on her bedspread who looked up sleepily when Leah came to sit on the bed. Taking the cue, Krysta slid easily to Leah, coiled around her arm and settled around her neck and shoulders. Leah was greatful for her presence and understanding, perhaps more so than she did herself. Leah realized that once again, she had only one friend. Leah had spent a lot of time with Krysta over the last fortnight. Although, Leah was also aware that she wasn't the only one who was becoming good friends with her. She had seen on countless occasions, Elise playing, talking and taking care of her. They had come a long way, Leah thought. Elise's birthday was also fast approaching. Leah had found out in their short conversations and was thinking along the lines of an animal as her birthday present, since Elise's favorite subject was Care of Magical Creatures (although she wouldn't admit it for her life). Leah was pondering on getting her a Niffler, as it was the only non-dangerous animal they had come across in their lessons before. Leah knew of this because Elise had told her on countless times of a particular lesson in their fourth year and how they were so useful. Indeed, Leah would have liked to have one also but she forced herself to rethink, seeing that Krysta might like to have it as her dinner. Hmm, bad idea, thought Leah.

Leah started to uncoil Krysta from her cool embrace and placed her in an old basket laden with some ripped blankets. Krysta was usually free to wonder around the Slytherin area; there were many mice around the dungeon area, although Krysta could only go into the girls' areas. There was one particularly horrible incident when Krysta had slithered herself into one of the boys' dorms chasing after a particularly fat rodent and had come upon an unwary seventh year boy. This, of course, caused a lot of havoc. And so, Leah, though half pleased that such a baby lay inside a 'tough and gruff' seventh year, had to run though the room full of boys cowering in one corner and grab Krysta. Though, when she got to the middle of the room, she found Krysta who was playfully rearing up to meet eye to eye with a fifth year boy quivering on the floor. Leah gave the other boys in the room a sickly sweet smile of triumph, put Krysta on her shoulders and walked out of the room. She didn't notice though that the boys stared at her, their eyes goggling, after the girl with a hissing snake wrapped around her neck.

Leah smiled as she reminisced. She had become considerably popular among the boys; they called after her and asked her about snakes and so on, but this had only lasted for a few days. Leah could remember Pansy looking quite sour that week but it seemed that the icy wall between them had melted somewhat.

Leah gave a great sigh and lay back on her bed. Some thing crumpled and she shot up to realize it was only the letters she had put in her pocket for safekeeping. She pulled them out, now a little crinkled, and reread them. When she had finished, she gave them a last longing look and walked over to her trunk where she pulled out an old fashioned box. This box was made out of wood from Elder trees and had been previously owned by her mother, and had been owned by her grandmother before her. The polish had been worn by careful and loving handling from over the years and inside was covered in soft, black velvet. The lid of the box beared the same emblem as her ring – some sort of family emblem that had been in her family for ages. Leah now kept letters in this box from people that she loved the most.

She hastily put the lid back on the box and shoved it under her bed as the door to the dorm opened. It was Elise. Leah gave a small smile and tried to act as nothing happened; she didn't fancy the idea of letting Elise know about her secret box.

"So, what have you been up to?" Leah asked.

"Oh, nothing much, you?" Elise said not giving much thought to her reply.

Leah thought quickly, "I've just been working on my assignments."

Elise nodded and an awkward silence stood between them. 

Leah gave a little laugh and persevered to continue the conversation, "So when's the Quidditch match? It's against Gryffindor, isn't it?" 

Elise was quite surprised and said, "Oh, so you know about the Quidditch match, do you?"

Leah nodded and said, "You hear it around the corridors a lot." 

"Yeah, it is against Gryffindor, but it's not until next week. You might want to be careful around the corridors, you know. Both houses get quite feisty towards the game, like hexes, jinxes and stuff. But since you're not really a Hogwarts student, it would probably be easy for you to get out of trouble."

Leah was grateful; she didn't fancy being struck by hexes. "That's good," was all she said.

Elise gave the old basket a loving look and walked over to stroke Krysta. "She's so beautiful."

"I know, she was given to me as a birth present, but it's been in the family for ages. I think it's older than my grandmother it's constantly reborn from the skin it died in. My boyfriend wasn't pleased though when he saw her at first," Leah stopped to take in what she had just said. She looked hesitantly at Elise who was smiling with excitement twinkling in her eyes.

"I didn't know you had a boyfriend. My last boyfriend broke up with me and sent me photographs of him and his new girlfriend in bed together, so I found a solution – I sent them to her dad. So obviously I don't have one at the moment, but I'm still looking out for one," Elise said and they launched into a very enthusiastic conversation.

"Don't go for Crabbe or Goyle, they're probably the last resolution. Actually, no – don't even think of it. It's too gross. Malfoy's not bad, but of course that's no match for you…  Pansy's already in the winning for him. She put a hex on a girl called Clementine Raads, a fifth year, last year for getting too close to him. I've never seen such a bad case of spaghetti hair in my life! She even perfected it by adding tomato sauce and grated Parmesan cheese" Elise said, half laughing.

Leah wasn't surprised, "So, that's why Pansy's so protective of him!"

"Yeah, and Pansy's fancied him for years but he's despised her for years too, only, he's got to be nice to her, because the Malfoys and Parkinsons are quite close, not to mention they're Death Eaters," Elise whispered, scared that someone might over hear.

This news wasn't a surprise, "But hasn't the Malfoys been taken to Azkaban?" 

"Only Malfoy's dad, but he went along with other families too. But I don't think they'll stay captured for long – the Dementors aren't working with the ministry anymore, remember?" Elise said, quieter with every word. Elise had stopped stroking Krysta and came to Leah's bed and sat next to her, as to minimize the volume of their speech. "You might want to be careful with some of the people you meddle with; a lot of the Slytherins are children of Death Eaters. There aren't many that aren't. My parents like dark magic, but this doesn't mean that they are Death Eaters. But most of them are, so be careful. You don't want to be buddies with the wrong sort."

Leah listened attentively as Elise dished out names, "There's Crabbe and Goyle, Pansy, Blaise, Millicent, Montague, Bletchley, Nott, Warrington, Pucey, Higgs, er…" Elise counted them off on her fingers. "that's all I can remember at the moment." 

But Leah had one name burning in her mind, "what about Malfoy?"

Elise thought for a moment and said, "You'd think so, wouldn't you? But as much as he's like his father I doubt that he will become a Death Eater. He's just got this huge grudge against Potter…"

"I've noticed…"

"…But you never know if will be or not. He's quite… unpredictable, you could say. But I don't think he'll do you any harm. Well, unless you mention his father. Crabbe had leeks sprouting from his ears for the whole week when he mentioned his father. But then again, he's pretty thick – don't think he would have noticed if leeks were sticking out of his nostrils."

They both laughed heartily and climbed into bed. They bid each other good night, but it was a while until Leah had gotten to sleep. She was rethinking about what Elise had said. She finally dropped off into a deep sleep with Elise's slow, deep breathing echoing in her mind.

A/N: so what do you think? Any queries or suggestions let me know by reviewing please. Thanks! Mia xx


	5. Snake and Lion

A/N: Please R&R!!!

Chapter 5: Snake and Lion

Leah awoke the next morning with Krysta coiled on her stomach under her bedspread, asleep. Krysta had 'moved in' under the bedpread during the night, and found that it was quite a lot warmer there than her basket, and so, decided that she would perhaps hibernate there for the winter. Leah, however didn't agree, but thought kinder than to throw her out of the bed and put a permanent warming spell on the basket. 

Leah came back from having breakfast in the Dining Hall to find Krysta happily lying in her basket, once again fast asleep. Leah smiled to herself and began packing books and instruments for the day. She looked at her timetable and groaned. First class for the day was double divination. She cringed at the thought of what that boggle-eyed woman would say to her today. She wished so much that she could be a fifth year; they had a centaur called Firenze as their teacher who didn't make predictions on the student's death everytime it saw him or her. She wondered how long this would keep going; it was a miracle already that Leah had survived for the last week at least, with all her predictions on her 'horrible and grave' death. But Leah shrugged it off. 

It was after that she climbed down the silver ladder with Elise closely behind, feeling a little light headed which was not uncommon after every Divination lesson. Leah was chatting casually with Elise on their homework, brainstorming ideas to put into it, that they came upon a duel in the middle of corridor. People from all directions were milling around the pair - a Gryffindor and a Slytherin. Elise realized at once who the two were and pushed closer to make sure she was right. Leah didn't have a good feeling about this, but was pulled through the crowd, right to the edge where the two boys stood, wands out, and glaring at each other. Leah could have guessed who it might have been, but either way she wasn't surprised – it was Malfoy and Potter. Both of them stood and spat out insults, trying to do the other out in the battle of words. 

"What's the matter, Malfoy? Aren't you brave enough to fight me with out your father?" spat Harry.

Malfoy began to tinge a pale pink in the cheeks and said in a dangerously soft voice, "I'd be careful if I were you, Potter. It's not going to be long until they'll be out and plotting to kill you."

Harry gave a dry laugh, "But you know, it's a shame that stupidity runs in your family. Obviously, if your father wasn't as stupid, he wouldn't be in Azkaban now and if you weren't so thick, you would be able to catch the snitch."

"Well, it's all about to change, Potty. I'd watch out if I were you," Malfoy spat, the tinge in his cheeks deepening.

"I suggest you look out for yourself, Malfoy. You're … friends, Crabbe and Goyle are probably stupid enough to think your head is the bludger or something, or if you're lucky Dumb and Dumber (a.k.a. Crabbe and Goyle) could miss because they can't even hit straight," Harry said, looking as though savoring the thought of Malfoy being whacked in the head by Tweedledee and Tweedledum (a.k.a. Crabbe and Goyle).

Leah snorted. Elise stamped her hard on the foot and hissed, "_shut up!_"

But the last comment by Harry was enough to snap Malfoy and he pointed his wand, hand shaking with anger and shouted a curse that shot a blast of red light. 

Harry was thrown backwards and landed with a thud onto his back. Everyone around them gasped automatically as though systemized to do so.

A tall boy with flaming red hair who was standing near Harry stepped out, his wand also pointing out in front.

Malfoy, panting slightly shifted his glare from Harry to the boy and said, "Ah, has Weasel come to save his friend?"

"I might be a weasel, but at least I'm not the world's greatest dancing ferret," he said, and gave the wand a violent swish, which in turn exploded with a loud BANG! and hit Malfoy with a purple light. People screamed and to Leah's surprise saw a white ferret with gray eyes, squeaking helplessly on the ground. People, not only Gryffindors but others too were laughing as the gangly boy shouted, "_tarantallegra!_" and made the ferret first tap-dance and then unmistakably started doing the foxtrot. 

It was all good fun, until Pansy who had been standing near Leah and Elise stepped out, her face ugly and pinched with rage, pointed her wand at the boy and shouted, "_Expelliarmus!_" The boy's wand flew out of his hand and clattered hollowly twenty feet away, and the ferret landed on the cold stone floor with a final, loud squeak. Pansy looked at the boy menacingly who was looking at his now empty hand and said triumphantly, "_Adeopunio!_" and the boy flew cleanly in the air, somersaulting mid air and landed beside his wand with a bone-chilling CRACK! Leah winced and others recoiled or shouted "Ooh!" Elise grabbed her by the arm and pulled her out from the crowd and started walking the other way. Leah could just see Pansy marching to the middle of the circle and scooping up the ferret and walking off to Madam Pomfrey. She also saw another girl, with bushy brown hair, run to the boy with red hair to help him up. People started to scatter, talking both nervously and excitedly over what happened. Some looked shaken (probably from the crack when the red-headed boy fell), some angry, some disappointed and some upset and worried. 

Towards the end of the corridor, Elise loosened her grip on Leah and she stopped to look at Elise and ask, "what was all that about?"

"It was just a normal pre-match row between Gryffindor and Slytherin." Elise looked a little weary on the subject. Leah wasn't entirely satisfied, but let it slip.

It was when they had both got to the dorm that they even spoke to each other. Leah, who was playing the memory of the row in her mind, started discussing it with Elise.

"Who was that red-headed boy that got blasted by Pansy?"

"Ron Weasley. He's Harry Potter's best friend and the Gryffindor Keeper."

"It doesn't seem like he'll be able to play for the match. That crack seriously gave me the collywobbles," Leah said wincing as she thought about it.

Drawing up to the match, there were increasing numbers of rows. One row was in a History of magic lesson while Professor Binns droned on. Miraculously, he didn't notice that there was a row in his class room or any of the students get a worse injury than boils and parsley sprouting from their ears, if not, none at all. Bets on the match were flying around the school and Gryffindors were frantically trying to find a new keeper. It turned out that Weasley had broken several bones in his body and wasn't quite fit enough to play in the match. Rumors also flew that Weasley had chucked a tantrum and broke all the supplies of bone-mending potion, but perhaps some knew better.

Malfoy was enjoying the rumors that went around, only because a lot of them were his own inventions, but Pansy also took delight in listening and relistening to Malfoy bragging about his rumors. By the time the day before the match arrived, people were too bored in listening to him and Malfoy sulkily returned to badgering some of the younger years.

That day, Leah met up with two people who she hadn't talked to for some time. She saw them once again in the Library, sitting together as always, only this time studying. It was Callisto and Annie. She spotted them almost right away and ran to their table, situated comfortably near the fire. It was Annie who had noticed who was coming and poked Callisto who was in mid-sentence, preoccupied in writing notes. She gave Annie an annoyed look, as she pointed in the direction of Leah. By the time Leah reached the table Callisto had realized what was happening.

"So, how have you been?" she shot out, topping it with a smile.

"Not bad, I guess. How about you two? Have you found a new Keeper?"

This time Annie, "We're both fine. Yeah, we did find a new Keeper. It's a girl called Ginny Weasley. She's a pretty good player, but I have to say that it's still hopeless," she sighed with a little smile of defeat on her face.

"Ginny… Hey, is that Ron Weasley's sister?" Leah quizzed.

"Well, yeah," Callisto said. 

"Why do you want to know?" asked Annie.

"Oh, just curious," Leah said breezily, "It's a shame that Ron Weasley can't play."

"Yeah…" Callisto said looking a little punctured. 

Leah changed the subject seeing that both of them weren't keen on talking about it, "So, how are you and Harry going? And you and Dean?"

Callisto's face lit up at this and said, "He's great… I mean, _we're_ great," a smile creeping up on her face, "but just between you and me – and you, Annie – he's a bit immature. You know, he doesn't have much _experience_," she stiffened the last word and Annie gave a little half-suppressed giggle. She went on, "He always seems to hang out with his friends, especially Hermione Granger, and doesn't pay much attention in what I'm trying to get across to him. Do you know what I mean?"

Leah didn't quite understand but trying to be helpful, she nodded her head solemnly. Callisto looked pleased and Leah kept the conversation going, this time at Annie, "I saw you and Dean get quite cozy the other day at Hogsmeade. What's happening with you two?"

Annie turned a brilliant scarlet and mumbled something and giggled. Callisto, also absorbed in the subject, said, "what's that?"

"Nothing," Annie said quickly but didn't convince Callisto.

"Oh, don't be a spoil-sport! Just tell us, we're not going to tell or laugh at you!" Callisto said pushing her to tell her secret.

"Oh, alright." She hesitated and went on, "We ended up kissing that night."

Both of them gaped at her and she hastily added, "It was only an innocent one on the cheek when I thanked him for the day and then things just moved on from there…" Annie trailed off looking misty-eyed.

Callisto tried her hardest to suppress her fit of giggles which resulted in a cough that snapped Annie back from La-la Land. Leah smiled as she brought back her memory of them together at the Three Broomsticks. How cute, she thought before she realised that she had thought the same thing that day. Her smile widened.

Leah arrived at the Slytherin table in the Dining Hall for breakfast full of jeering and catcalls erupting from the people sitting at it. She looked around to see that most of it was thrown across the room towards the Gryffindor table. Leah raised an eyebrow at this, but soon forgot and found Elise sitting quietly by herself reading the Daily Prophet and eating a bowl of cereal. She sat down next to her, greeting her and grabbing for the hot bowl of porridge. Leah looked around at the others sitting at the table and saw that everybody else was joining in in the jeering except for Elise and herself. Elise was preoccupied with her newspaper and didn't seem to notice what was happening around her. Or perhaps she was ignoring it, she thought, she does a good job of it too.

By the time Leah had finished her porridge, Elise had read the final page of the Daily Prophet and looked at Leah in anticipation of going. They looked at each other for a moment, both non-verbally agreeing to go. They stood up together and walked past a group of Slytherin fifth years who were catcalling towards two Gryffindor boys, one with a camera tightly clutched in his hands. 

By the time Leah and Elise had reached the Quidditch Pitch, at least half of the stadium seats allocated to Slytherins were occupied. They struggled their way through the crowd dressed in silver and green, all of whom looked the least pleasant. An air of determination drifted about the place, both Gryffindor and Slytherin roaring with pride and hatred for the other.

Leah sat down at two vacant seats, Leah next to a blond girl and Elise to boy with very uneven teeth, as a blur of green went zooming above them. A girl behind Leah who had knotty black hair shouted, "Hey Montague!" waving furiously. Leah looked at her in amazement. To her, the now distant blurs of green only seemed like flying clumps of bush, but perhaps you could vaguely make out a head attached to the blur and maybe even a face. 

Leah looked up to the cold, gray winter-driven sky, the colour familiar in her mind. She shivered and tried to concentrate on making a head appear out of the green and red blurs. She got as close as finding a red blur close to the three golden hoops, but didn't succeed as to finding what colour hair he or she had. She had a tingling in her mind that the hair colour was perhaps red, making it impossible to find it. But before she could pursue anymore, she became frustrated and gave up only to realise that the game was about to start. Then, Leah had a quick moment to try and identify some of the players before they became mists of green and red. It was in the last moment that she saw a green figure mounted on the paused broomstick with dazzlingly white-blond hair facing a red figure with hair of ebony. She got a gut feeling for who they might be, but before she could revisit the duel from the other day in her mind she was captured, looking up at the game in the sky.

A/N: Remember to R&R folks!


	6. Pansy's Party Pooper

Chapter 6: Pansy's Party Pooper

Everyone gasped as two figures, one green and the other red, suddenly dived from above the game. Both blurs of colour were neck to neck following each other's every move. Leah, who had been watching for the last half an hour of the very exciting game of Quidditch, snapped her vision towards where everybody else's eyes were fixated on.

In the last half an hour, the game had steadily gotten itself in the favor of the Slytherins. Gryffindor had scored only thirty points but Slytherin, on the other hand had achieved nineteen goals which put them up at a hundred and ninety points much to Gryffindor's dismay. At this point there seemed to be no hope for Gryffindor in the least that they would win this match. Gryffindor, their determination still unwavered, were persevering in cheering relentlessly at their team, but Slytherin, whose determination had shifted from winning the match to making sure that Gryffindor wouldn't take their losing so easily.

But at this point in time, Slytherin had stopped jeering at the Gryffindors and stared after the colourful blurs fast approaching the ground. 

Malfoy, who was now grinning, gripped firmly to his Nimbus Two Thousand and One, clinging as close to it as possible in that he might build up more speed. Harry, on the other hand was also grinning (though not aware of this) and made his every movement mimic with that of Malfoy's. They both had very few in common, except now, they had one common goal; to retrieve the winged, golden Snitch. 

Harry realised that Malfoy was gaining speed, and concentrated on pushing his Firebolt to go faster, his hands slipping slightly in the process from the sweat. It was all or nothing, he thought. The point score that Gryffindor now possessed didn't help the situation Harry was now in, but there was a small chance that they should recover. Malfoy had discovered the snitch first, and so, rather than losing with a two hundred and ten-point gap, he would have to lose with more dignity; with just ten points at loss.

Meanwhile, Malfoy had realised to his glee that he was in the lead. He felt cold sweat run across his forehead, wind-swept with the speed he was flying at. He ignored it, trying to put all his concentration into getting the snitch into his clutch. 

He was nearly there. The golden ball was so close to his out-stretched hands, but the darn thing wouldn't fly on the one plain. He grew frustrated, but just as he thought he had it in the sack, his confidence faltered. He saw in his peripheral vision, right at the edge, an unpleasant sight. 

Harry Potter, the one and only saint of Hogwarts and his rival, was gaining his level with him. Malfoy's eyes widened as his fear rose to meet the figure he loathed caught up with him. He fought, but before he knew it, it was over. To his dismay, Harry swung hard to his right, ripping away from the contour he had kept with Malfoy, hand raised in the air and smiling. 

Malfoy felt a similar feeling of anger start to boil but was suddenly put out as fast as it came when he saw the score board. On it, it read Gryffindor: a hundred and eighty, Slytherin: a hundred and ninety. 

Slytherin had won. It didn't matter if Harry had gotten the snitch, because they had still won. Malfoy felt another sensation come to surface and topped it off with a look of triumph that even Harry couldn't measure up to.

Malfoy suddenly looked around and finally noticed the roar of victory coming from the crowd of Slytherin supporters. He felt the uplifting feeling of victory and flew a couple of rounds around the stadium, waving and smiling a toothy smile to the Slytherins and a sneer to the others.

Leah saw this, though not as close up. She smiled, yet half-heartedly and returned to the Slytherin common room to find a party going on. Leah was caught dead in her tracks and looked around at the decorated room, the dominating colour being green. There were dozens of smuggled flagons of Butterbeer and pumpkin juice and foods such as pies, pastries, cakes and little savories. There were of course sweets such as Every Flavour Beans, Chocolate Frogs, Toffee Apples, Fizzing Wizzbees, Cockroach Clusters and a sweet that had made a debut in the Hogwarts grounds; Fire Toffee. These of course came from the shop situated in Diagon Alley, invented by no one less than the Weasley twins. These were fast to go down, and for a good half an hour there were spouts of fire from all over the room. There by the time the flames had died out, there were a couple of people who had singed brows and smoke still stringing out of their ears.

Leah made her way around the room occasionally chewing on some caramel chews or some other lolly of another kind. She had caught up with a few people she knew, but most of the people there were either faces not seen before or others vaguely familiar. This continued until a face vivid in her mind popped up in front of her. It was Pansy.

Her black hair was tied up in a bun with a moldy bit of leather looking somewhat like a snake reinforcing it. Her face, Leah was pleased to see, had red, shiny patches looking like burns. She also wore a look of pleasure for herself. She had a big flask of Butterbeer in one hand and said, "So, how do you like my party? It's a pretty good gathering, isn't it?" She took a deep swig from her flask.

"Yeah," Leah said half-mindedly. She didn't fancy having a conversation with her, also not wanting to give her the pleasure of knowing that her party was next to descent.

However, Pansy was oblivious to Leah's reluctance and kept on going, "The food's good, eh. I guess I didn't do such a bad job, don't you think?" taking on credit for herself. Leah mumbled a response that agreed with Pansy.

Pansy, still oblivious, kept on talking about the preparation and how she had guessed from the beginning of the Quidditch season that they would finally win over Gryffindor ("I just knew it, you know. Draco's such a good player.") Leah took this time to listen to the people around them while Pansy's blabbering became a faint "blah, blah, blah."

A third year boy commented, "Potter got what he deserved. He's such a show off, what with all that publicity on 'the boy who lived'." 

Another boy with a spectacular scar on the side of his face agreed with him, "It won't be long until he'll end up like his stupid parents. He's just a prick that plays hide and seek with the Dark Lord and takes all the credit for it."

Listening to this, Leah guessed that Harry wasn't popular around here and the influence of the Dark Lord had played a big role in the people of Slytherin house. Leah recalled the words of Elise; _you might want to be careful with some of the people you meddle with - a lot of the Slytherins are children of Death Eaters. There aren't many that aren't._ She could see what she meant.

She snapped back to where Pansy and herself were standing. Pansy was now drinking down the rest of the Butterbeer with gusto. Thinking about Elise brought Leah to realise that she hadn't seen her ever since the match either. 

Her thoughts were cut short with an entrant into the room that got most of the people's attention. Malfoy had entered, fully changed from his Quidditch clothes and was immediately lifted onto the shoulders of Crabbe and Goyle. Pansy also immediately flocked towards him, trying on her most seductive smile, making her face look gruesome. Malfoy hadn't noticed this; he was too happy with attention and heroism that everybody was feeding him. She looked at him and smiled, though without meaning to. She thought to herself, how immature he was. He was such an attention seeking, little boy that it was almost cute, the way he just thrived on everybody's attention. After Malfoy did a couple of laps around the room, smiling, waving and punching the air, he was finally put down onto the ground and was then crowded around with the remainder of the room congratulating him and piling food and drinks into his hands.

Leah was at the back of the room quietly watching what was happening and a quiet voice said behind her, "What a kid."

Leah immediately turned around and saw who it was. "Elise!" she cried with relief. "Where were you all this time?"

"I met up with an old friend."

Leah could see a sort of far-away look forming in Elise's eyes and asked, "What's wrong?"

"Nothing," she quickly said and went up to gather food. 

A further ten minutes passed and the food rapidly disappeared. It was then that Pansy stood up on the low coffee table in the middle of the room and motioned for everyone to be quiet. After a couple of rounds of "_hem hem_," from Pansy, everybody's attention was finally on her.

She cleared her throat once more and said, "Well, I hope everyone's having a good time. But we wouldn't be having such a good time if it wasn't for one special person – Draco Malfoy. So I thing we should all raise our drinks to Draco."

Draco reared with a grin as everyone around him lifted their flasks and chorused, "To Draco." His face reddened with superiority. He gave small nod of acknowledgment from where he sat. 

Pansy continued, "Now that the food is becoming short, some games wouldn't be a bad idea, I think. So, any suggestions?"

Draco stood up from where he was sitting, "How about Truth or Dare? Yes?"

None of the people in the room objected. A couple of seventh-years magically moved the furniture to the sides of the room and all sat in a circle in the middle of the room. Once everyone had settled down, everybody automatically looked at Draco for assistance. After a moment's silence, Draco said, "Ok, I'll start shall I?" he said looking around. His gaze settled on Goyle and finally said, "Goyle, truth or dare?"

Goyle's eyes widened and he stumbled on his words, "Er, t-tr-t-truth."

Malfoy's eyes gave a malicious twinkle and said, "Goyle, state the name of the girl you like."

Goyle looked very sorry for himself and mumbled a name sounding close to "Millicent."

Everyone laughed and rolled on the ground holding their stomachs. But no one laughed as hard as Pansy; she was shrieking like a tickled banshee. Close by, Leah could see Millicent's face buried deep in her blockish hands and her ears a brilliant red. She took pity on the girl, although she didn't know her very well.

It was now Goyle's turn but after his episode of sheer embarrassment, it was very hard for him to even get his voice out. After struggling mentally for sometime, he spoke in a low, dumb voice, "Um, Crabbe. What do you choose?"

"Erm… Dare," he finally answered in a gruff but also dumb voice.

"Er, I dare you to… to go and punch a first year. Yeah… _he he he_," he laughed stupidly thinking that his dare was such a great idea of his.

Crabbe looked awfully relieved at his dare and got his huge body up and walked over to a scrawny boy on the opposite side of the circle. As he approached clumsily, the boy got out his wand and put an incantation on Crabbe before he could even get as close as five feet. Before Crabbe could file into his small brain what had happened, his eyebrows began to grow longer and longer. With in the space of about thirty seconds, they had grown past his nose and had become blonde and curled into neat ringlets. Crabbe hastily left to go to the Hospital Wing, holding up the hair that covered his eyes occasionally bumping into things and everyone sending him off with shrieking choruses of laughter. 

Since Crabbe was unable to choose anyone, it was passed onto the person sitting next to Crabbe. This ended up being Blaise who sat sullen faced and silent. After sometime had passed, Blaise said in a dull voice, "Pansy, Truth or Dare?"

Pansy, unlike the others before her, looked excited at the prospect and said with a dark twinkle in her eye, "Dare me."

"Ok," Blaise said sounding a little bored. "I dare you to do a pole dance on the coffee table."

Pansy, who had been so enthusiastic and confident until Blaise spoke, now looked very much like a beatroot. She cursed under her breath and got up on to the low table. She started off clumsily into what seemed like the macarina, then gradually gained her confidence. People were laughing from all directions and pointing, some were too embarrassed to look. Towards the end, Pansy seemed to be having a ball of a time on the table but others on the floor and on chairs lost interest. In the end, Pansy was pushed off the table from behind, falling ungracefully and sitting down again, looking flushed.

By that time, people had thought they had seen enough (most of them thoroughly put off by Pansy) and they walked out of the room to their dormitories or out of the common room all together. There was only a small group of people left, containing Pansy, Blaise, Millicent, Leah, Elise, Melissa, Goyle, Draco, Montague, Pucey, and a handful of seventh years. 

The group huddled together into a smaller circle, as not to be in the way of anybody passing. It was now Pansy's turn to embarrass the hell out of someone and she made a quick job of choosing who that was going to be. As she looked around the circle of possibilities, her eyes met with Leah's as a malicious sort of twist formed on her lips. Leah's heart sank.

"Leah, you look quite the darer. Truth or Dare?" she said amusingly as if about to squash a nastily big beetle. 

Leah thought carefully. What's the worse that can happen, thought Leah. If I chose truth, then I'd have to tell them something that I probably wouldn't want anybody knowing. And if I chose dare? Well, I guess it can't bet as bad as lap dancing in front of Goyle, can it? She went on thinking like this for another minute and carefully weighed out the two possibilities. She finally took a big sigh and said, "Dare."

Pansy's eye's glimmered and she said excitedly, trying not to trip on her words with the excitement, "I dare you, Leah," she paused. Leah took in a breath, "To go kiss Scar Head."

Leah groaned, and from the corner of her eye she could see Malfoy smirking. 

A/N: Hope you liked it! If you do, please R&R. If you don't, R&R. If you just don't care, then R&R anyway. Thanks!


	7. Pash and Dash

Chapter 7:

 A few days had passed since Pansy's party and Leah sat on a couch, huddled up next to the fire with Krysta lying on the rug near her. It had become her favorite spot to spend her spare times in. Most of the time, Leah would think about things or write letters to her family and Chris, although his letters have steadily become fewer and later in reply. Tonight though, Leah sat in her favorite chair reminiscing about what happened the other night. Some of what happened was a blur to Leah but most of it was clearly etched in her mind. 

She could remember how she promised to Pansy that she would do the dare by the end of tomorrow. And how Pansy's eyes glimmered dangerously and Leah's stomach dropped. But the game went on, and Leah was now to choose a victim. 

She could clearly see what she had seen as she looked around the circle. Her eyes momentarily stopped as she came to see Malfoy. He stared back at her, daring for her to challenge him. She could feel a sort of sinister grin form on her lips and Malfoy paled. She continued around the circle until she came upon Pucey, the Slytherin Quidditch Captain. He was looking down at his shoes and picking mud off the sole. That's the one, Leah thought, but she continued around the circle as to not give away her choice. Once she had gotten to Elise who was sitting next to her, she cleared her throat and said in a clear voice, "Pucey, Choose – Truth or Dare?"

He jumped when he heard his name but determined to be a man, he regained his confidence and said, "Truth."

_Tut tut_, thought Leah. "Not much of a darer, are you Pucey," she said determined.

Pucey paled and sat silent for a moment. Finally he said grumbling, "Fine, dare me."

Show time, thought Leah as she gave him an evil smile. "I dare you to go spend five full minutes in the broom cupboard with Pansy. You know what you have to do."

Pansy was shocked and it took some time before she could get on her feet. She shot an extremely dirty look at Leah and trailed after Pucey who was heading towards the other side of the room, near the boys' dormitory. The last of them that Leah saw was Pansy's hand pulling the door shut.

Five minutes passed and Leah walked over to the door and knocked, "Five minutes is up." She heard some muffled sounds inside and a grunt that sounded like "Damn."

When they finally came out, both of them looked extremely flustered, red in the face, unevenly clothed and hair messy. Everybody laughed when they came out, some giggled and some snickered. Pucey kept his gaze down to the floor but Pansy shot Leah with her most evilest glare she could manage.

When everybody had sat down again Pucey, like the others, looked around the circle for possible victims. Once Pucey had come to Leah, his gaze was very quick and Leah was sure that it wouldn't be her. His choice of course, was Montague. 

Leah sat back in her favorite couch looking into the fire. She wasn't sure what else happened during the game. Though, she could remember snippets of it – Montague confessing his love to Blaise, although Blaise didn't take this as an offence and spent the whole night sitting together and holding hands. A boy by the name of Theodore Nott coming back after his dare looking extremely scared after encounting a night-time stroll in the Forbidden Forrest. And last and most vivid of her memories was the truth question asked to Malfoy.

It was Warrington's turn to Truth or Dare someone, and not surprisingly, chose probably the last person sitting in the circle – Malfoy. By that time, Malfoy had turned very pale, paler than his already pale complexion.

Everybody obviously being scared of Malfoy and his death threats didn't persuade him to be more daring with his choice when he chose truth. Warrington thought carefully, as not to choose a question that would earn him a death threat. He finally said, his eyes lighting up, "What's some thing that you parents have never caught you doing?"

Leah lips curled and thought to herself, how clever. It was somehow naughty in that obviously it was something that you'd want to hide from them but it could have been as simple as sneaking a cookie from the cookie jar.

Malfoy gave a little smile of amusement but then sank into thought. Everyone's attention was on him and he looked as though thoroughly enjoying it, and started to exaggerate in his 'thinking'. Leah's eyes rolled involuntarily but soon caught Pansy's eyes, which were evilly looking at hers.

After sometime, people were starting to loose interest in Malfoy's exaggerated acts and Malfoy too, was seeing that he wasn't getting much attention anymore. He cleared his throat and said, "Many things."

Everybody groaned. 

"C'mon, tell us more!"

"Yeah, tell us!"

"Just say it!"

"Alright, alright! I'll tell you." He paused and grinned a sinister grin, "stealing cookies from the cookie jar."

Everyone looked disappointed and some tried persuading him to say more. Better safe than sorry, thought Leah and she left the common room and into her dorm.

Leah sat back into the couch and tried to remember further into what had happened, without succeeding. She went on to play the memory of the next day; one that was definitely strong in her mind.

That morning, the Slytherins had double potions with Gryffindor and Leah sat next to Elise in the dark and dank dungeon far below the castle. Snape had once again started his class by picking on Harry and then drawling on about today's potion. He then pointed to the black board which magically appeared with the complicated method of potion making, today, a very strong Imperative Potion, one you can control whoever took 3 drops of it.

Annie had caught Leah's eyes several times during the lesson and waved from behind her cauldron. Leah tried returning the wave, but Elise trod on her toe; a motion to stop associating with what she called "the wrong sort". Leah could see Pansy eyeing her suspiciously.

Leah felt a guilty pang every time she saw Callisto. Imagine what she would think if she knew that I was going to kiss her boyfriend, Leah thought and her stomach sunk an inch lower.

Elise and Leah managed to get the potion up to scratch, though the liquid was a bit too thick than what it was meant to be. But this was enough to stop Snape breathing down their necks and he moved onto the next group.

Malfoy, on the other hand, was praised highly by Snape even though his potion had a pinkish tinge to it, when it was meant to be purely transparent. 

Harry wasn't as lucky. He was given a very low mark when his potion was only slightly gluggy – a better potion than of Leah and Elise. Harry looked very disgruntled, despite the fact that this had happened repeatedly for the last six years. To top things off, Malfoy went past Harry's cauldron to hand in a sample of his potion, knocked the cauldron off its stand and spilt the whole lot on to the cold dungeon floor. This brought Harry's mark down to zero and in the end, Harry had to also stay behind to mop up the spilt potion.

Leah took this opportunity to make a mess to slow down the process of packing up and was left behind with Harry for a few minutes. As Leah shoved the last bit of parchment into her bag, she checked to see that Harry was still working hard in cleaning the mess. She hoisted the bag onto one shoulder and walked towards Harry, "Did you want some help with that?"

"No, I'm fine thanks. I've finished now anyway," he said throwing a potion drenched rag into a sink near by.

Leah gulped hard and fought the butterflies in her stomach. She said quickly before acting upon it, "I'm so sorry I have to do this. It was Pansy's dare."

"W-?" but he was cut short by Leah lips hastily meeting his. To Leah's surprise, she became fixated in kissing him. But nothing would have prepared her for what came next; he was kissing her back. As soon as Leah realized this, she backed away quickly. "I'm so sorry," she repeated.

"No – never mind."

"I'd appreciate it if you didn't tell anybody about this," she said, feeling the knot in her stomach tighten. "Especially Callisto, I don't want to break her heart. It was only a dare anyway – it didn't mean a thing…"

"Um, yeah. But -" But he was cut short again as Leah sprinted out of the dungeon.

Leah sighed as the knot tightened once again in her stomach. That knot had been there for two days now, and she couldn't dare look at Callisto in the eye. One thing she was sure was that Callisto would never find out about what had happened between her and Harry. 

Though she had told Pansy that she had accomplished the task, it was only to Elise that she had confided what had really happened. 

That night, Leah reopened her box of letters and read and reread through each letter. Her stomach curled as she read the last letter from Chris. Oh god, she thought, what would happen if he knew? But she thanked her lucky stars that these things would stay buried for a long time…

The next day went to breakfast as usual and arrived in time to see the owls swooping in through the high window. She searched through the crowd of flapping wings but failed to find a familiar owl – not that she was expecting any letters.

She went back to finishing her piece of toast as Pansy neared where she sat and sat down opposite with a sneer smeared across her face that gave Leah a gut feeling that something wasn't right. She greeted her politely and stuffed the last piece of the toast in her mouth and got up to leave.

"I wouldn't be going so soon, if I were you," Pansy said.

Leah turned and asked pointedly, "What do you mean by that?"

Pansy gave her a small smile and got up to walk towards the Gryffindor table. As she glided past Leah, she quietly said in her ear, "Just watch this."

Leah tried leaving, but her feet were glued to the floor and she had no choice but to stand there and watch her.

As Pansy neared the Gryffindor table, she called out to Callisto who twisted from her bowl of porridge and looked at her with nothing less than disgust. "What are you doing here?" she pointed out.

Pansy ignored her question and asked, "Have you met our new comer, Leah Harrison?"

"Of course I have," Callisto said.

"Well it looks like your… friend's gotten cozy with your celebrity boyfriend." 

Callisto's face fell and a bit of porridge splotched in the bowl from the suspended spoon as Callisto gaped at Leah. Leah couldn't do much except look helplessly at the dumbstruck Callisto and the sneering Pansy. It finally came to a point where Leah couldn't stand it anymore and wheeled around and ran out of the Hall.

She finally stopped pelting when she reached her bed and she slumped on it and buried her face in to the bed spread. Krysta, who awoke from the sudden intrusion, slid to where Leah lay and coiled herself neatly on her back. Leah felt the weight start warming her back and she gave a sigh, picked Krysta up from her back and came to sit up. She started talking to her, "God, Krysta, why did I come here in the first place? I mean, why did I even decide to be part of Pansy's stupid group of friends, anyway? Why didn't I see the warning signs before I got into all this?" Leah doubted that Krysta knew what she was talking about, but she certainly looked at her as if she understood her completely. 

A/N: R&R please!


	8. Innocent Until Proven Guilty

Chapter 8:

Leah tried her best to avoid Callisto; both her gaze and her presence. She'd go out of the way and go around the long way to class, or when she saw her approaching, she'd quickly nip into the bathroom or an empty class room. The only exception was the hour of double potions on Mondays and Wednesdays. Once, trying to avoid her on the way to Runes class, she turned at a wrong corner and bumped into someone.

"Watch were you're going, you Muggle-lover!" shouted an annoyed yet sly voice. He would have thought that she would have put up a fight, but he was left with something less.

There was no doubt that she didn't know that voice, but she just blindly shouted, "Piss off!" and ran in the opposite direction, leaving a confused yet bewildered Malfoy in the middle of the corridor. 

She also avoided Pansy as she was still sneering at her every time Pansy had the opportunity. She had continually gotten support from Elise, but even then, her words weren't enough to erase Callisto's face from her mind. 

Meanwhile, Callisto couldn't stand Leah ignoring her and finally cornered her on the weekend after breakfast. She watched her as she finished her piece of toast and as she got up to leave to the Slytherin common room, she also got up to meet her at the door. At first Leah didn't seem to notice Callisto coming from behind her but once she did, she broke into a hurried walk, but soon was caught up.

She wheeled around and started spitting out excuses, hoping for the world she wouldn't get thumped. "Look, I'm really sorry about what happened. It was Pansy's dare, and she made me do it. It didn't mean a thing and I totally regret even coming here. Please forgive me-"

"It's ok."

"– Huh?"

"_It's ok_. I'm not upset or anything."

"But -," Leah started to say.

"Alright, I was shocked a little when I found out – especially hearing it from Pansy – but I'm not upset at all."

"But aren't you going out with him? Weren't you upset when I kissed your boyfriend?" she stared at Callisto with shock.

"_Ex_-boyfriend," she pointed out. "I broke up with him a few days before the whole ordeal happened. And I found out from Harry that it was a dare – he didn't take it personally, by the way. He was rather flattered actually," she said starting to giggle.

Leah raised her eyebrows and simply said, "Oh."

Afterwards, Leah went back to the Slytherin common room to play with Krysta, feeling a whole tonne lifted from her chest. She hummed happily to herself as she went past the occupied plush couches surrounding the fire framed by an elaborately carved mantle. But she was stoped short when a malicious voice called out to her from one of the couches, "Why, if it isn't the muggle-lover."

"What did you call me?" Leah said coldly as she turned around to face Pansy lying lazily on the couch, her face pasted with a gruesome twist forming on her lips.  

"A muggle-lover. Do you comprehendé?" 

"And why would you want to call me that? What's your problem with muggle-borns anyway?" Leah challenged her.

"I'll call you what I want to call you. And I'd call you the disgrace to the magical world – befriending those filthy mudbloods," she spat out. "You're the scum of the magical world and you couldn't go any lower than that."

Leah could hear hot blood pulsating through her ears as her temper began to boil. "Well I'm sorry that I had to lower myself to your level, you inbred troll," she said in a deadly clam voice. "Are your parents brother and sister? Because that would explain why you're an ugly-,"she would have continued her insults if it wasn't for the sudden whip of Pansy's wand that caused Leah to fly back ten feet. Leah lay on her back, spread eagle, and looked up gingerly feeling the pain radiate through her joints. Pansy looked murderous as she stood there poised, with her wand pointing straight at her heart. Leah felt a warm rod radiate heat in her pocket and took the object out to find her wand in her hand, sparking two or three silver sparks. She felt a familiar warmness erupt in her hand to the day in Diagon Alley, buying her school equipment. She gripped her wand and took aim and shouted, "_Adeopunio!_" Pansy was thrown into the air, taking similar effect to the first experience she hat of a Slytherin/Gryffindor duel. Take a drop of your own poison, thought Leah. 

She got up and walked to Pansy's side and trod on her wand as Pansy reached out to grab it. She tried struggling to get the wand out from under Leah's foot but gave up and got up to face Leah. She stared at her momentarily, her eyes narrowed and said, "You-" 

SLAP! Leah staggered back slightly and automatically put her hand to her cheek. She could feel it start to redden and the pain numbed almost instantly. She half-laughed a sneer and said, "Is that the hardest you can slap?" and brought her extended hand with all her might at Pansy's temper-ugly face. SLAP! Pansy staggered also, but this time fell onto her knees, cradling the side of her face Leah had hit. She turned to go but Pansy hadn't finished. "Oh, no you don't!" she said and tackled Leah from behind. They both fell to the cold stone floor scrabbling to get hold of each other. They kicked each other, bit each other and Leah even managed to yank out a clump of Pansy's knotty black hair. They screamed and shouted insults and rolled about the room, each trying to get the better of the other. Both of them were so preoccupied that they didn't notice the crowd that had gathered around them and a dark figure enter the room and watch them from the start with amusement, leaning against the back of the door. 

It was Leah who noticed the figure there, although after a considerable amount of time had passed. Leah was in the middle of holding Pansy in a headlock, who in turn tried to grab at Leah's locks. She looked at the figure for a moment and finally realised that it was, "Oh, hi Malfoy."

Pansy gave a small gasp, fought off Leah and straightened, trying to use her fingers to comb her messy hair. Leah didn't notice that her hair had fallen from the bun that she had had it in earlier, but stared, her arms crossed at her chest, at Malfoy as he came forward from the shadowed entrance, into the light of the fire. The crowd that they had gathered started to scatter, feeling a little disappointed that it hadn't continued for longer.

He clapped softly as he made his way towards the two girls, his amusement shadowing the smirk on his face. "That was very entertaining, Pansy, Leah. But I have to advise you, that if you're to have another cat fight, I'd do it somewhere more…" he momentarily paused and looked around at the fraction of the crowd still standing around, "…private." His grey eyes weren't cold but mildly cool this time and didn't bore into hers but sort of shimmer with amusement. 

Leah raised an eyebrow, but mentally stopped from saying anything to upset the situation. Instead, Leah looked sideways shooting Pansy a dirty look but found her looking down to the floor and nursing a couple of nail marks on her arm. Leah leered triumphantly as _I did that_ wandered through her mind. 

Leah remembered what she was going to do before she had gotten herself in the fight and walked out of the room, her ripped school robes fluttering behind her. Malfoy just watched after her, eyeing the rip extending from the hem to about mid thigh. 

On her way to the dormitory, she could hear Pansy whining to Malfoy about her but being promptly rejected by him. She muttered under her breath, "Attention seeking-" but stopped before she got herself worked up again.

News of the cat fight between 'the Parkinson girl' and the 'exchange student' spread like a raging bush fire and Leah was sure that almost the whole school knew of the happenings in the common room by the next night. The cause of the gossip leak was most likely from Pansy and her gossip troopers causing the story to rapidly change form over the next day.  From what should have been a cat fight between Pansy and Leah, transformed to 'evil' Leah trying to tackle 'innocent' Pansy on her way from the library (not that she'd even be there in the first place) and Pansy coming out of the struggle triumphant. 

This sort of thing made Leah mentally puke and she desperately tried to ignore it. It turned out that not many people believed the gossip anyway and was also, surprisingly, helped out by the fact that Malfoy hadn't, in anyway, attempted at recreating the scene. He simply ignored it and didn't join in on the chorus of laughter coming from his friends. Leah didn't know if he was being nice (though hard to believe) or just justifying. But either way Leah was thankful, even though she didn't want to admit it.

Leah's relationships with the rest of Slytherin house became more cheerful, perhaps because she had once again become a celebrity. People from all around smiled, waved, and chatted to her. Leah started to think that she'd cat fight Pansy anytime if she could get the same sort of attention all the time. 

Pansy on the other hand, glared at her all the time and unluckily, she couldn't just escape from her so easily. Most of her classes were shared with her and on top of that, they slept in the same dormitory. Leah would use Krysta whenever in the dorm, as a body guard against Pansy, but out of the dormitory, she had nothing. 

They would often growl at each other or have staring contests to see who could glare at the other the longest. Neither of them wished to re-enact the fight and so to Leah's relief, Pansy never went as far as getting into one again. 

Draco sat on his four-poster bed and replayed the scene of the cat fight in his head. Wow, he thought, I've never seen Leah so feisty before let alone a girl fight. He snorted as he thought, wouldn't want to get on the wrong side of her. He mentally kicked himself for thinking about it for the last half an hour. He didn't mean to, but he just couldn't get the thought out of his mind. Especially the part when Leah had Pansy in a headlock. He smirked, with out meaning to, and got off the bed. This is stupid, he thought.

He walked over to his trunk sitting at the foot of his bed and scurried around trying to find something. He straightened up after several minutes to bring out a small, black drawstring pouch. He loosened the end and tipped the contents into his hand. A silver ring fell out and on the pendant was a crest of two serpents surrounding a single ruby in the center. He looked at it mysteriously – it had been a present passed on to him by his father. From his father's stories, this had been a family emblem and was passed down from generation to generation to the eldest child. Apart from those pieces of information, his father wouldn't tell him any more. Draco hated it when his father molly-coddled him like that; Draco didn't think of himself as a child anymore. Unlike that very immature fight, thought Draco. He pictured Leah walking out, her robes tattered with an exceptionally big rip going up the back. This must have been the tenth or so time that he had replayed the scene in his head and started to mentally kick himself. It's (kick)…only (kick)…a (kick)…stupid (kick)…muggle (kick)…lover! (kick) Get (kick)…her (kick)…out (kick)…of (kick)…your (kick)…head! (kick) He's mind was starting to hurt by now and decided to reason without mental violence. 

This is just stupid, though Draco. I just need to get a grip on myself, that's all. Just… a…grip… But his mind was already wondering off to the other day. But as much as he tried, none of his faint attempts at forgetting the scene succeeded.

He only came back to reality when the huge bodies of Crabbe and Goyle came in to the dormitory and started telling each other lame jokes. 

"Why did the hippogriff cross the road?" asked the low voice of Goyle.

"Er, I don't know," Crabbe answered.

"Neither do I. I was hoping that you did." Goyle looked stupidly at Crabbe who shrugged.

Draco's eyes rolled and he asked, "don't you have any decent jokes to tell, you two?"

"Well, I was reading a book on jokes, but they didn't tell you the answers."

"Maybe it's in the back?" Draco sighed, exasperated. 

"Oh…" Goyle trailed off.

A/N: Please R&R!


	9. Christmas Holidays

Chapter 9:

Winter dragged on as Christmas drew near and it was soon time for students to board the Hogwarts express back home for the holiday season. Christmas, as far as Leah was concerned, meant no school, no lagging books and no homework for two weeks. This was probably so for most of the student body, but some looked forward to the Christmas feast waiting for them at their family table.

Teachers also were looking forward to the two week holiday from which they could escape from their… less favourite students they had been seeing day in, day out. In their last week, their facial expressions changed considerably from their 'twisted from teaching' look to "only four more days of teaching these -" looks of relief.

In Slytherin house, there were only a handful of people who would be staying back at school for the holidays. The rest of the house however, was packing their belongings into their trunks and most of their lively talks were focused on Christmas and their families. Draco had launched into excited boasts at the start of the week about what he would be up to in the holidays. Prime turkeys for every meal, a room full of presents and magnificent decorations was all Leah heard before she spaced out to think of much more interesting subjects. 

Chatter around the corridors became more and more excited as the days were counted down from 4 days… 3 days… 2… and finally the day arrived for students to wave goodbye to the big castle standing alone, overshadowing the little town next to it. 

Leah sat with Elise in an empty compartment in a carriage reserved for Slytherins. Several times some of the other members of Slytherin would come in and chat, but they never seemed to stay long. Leah took the liberty to catch up on some sleep as the last few nights were full of holiday chatter. Elise followed, but buried her face in the Daily Prophet before she did so. She was an up-to-date girl and was usually like this in her spare times. Before Leah fell asleep though, Elise read out a small article, "Look, Leah. The Daily Prophet came up with a recent survey that three out of four people make up 75% of the population. Hah, what people think up these days…" Leah silently laughed and stored it in her brain for later review.

By the time Leah woke up from her sleep with rather a stiff neck, the view from the window had changed from forests to tightly squished houses of London's suburbia. Another 15 minutes brought her and the rest of the students to Kings Cross Station to meet their excited and ecstatic parents. 

Draco sat in a compartment with Crabbe and Goyle. Crabbe and Goyle sat opposite him, snoring so much that the compartment windows shook slightly. Draco considered moving compartments when his headache worsened, slid the door open and started walking towards the back of the train. He looked into every compartment of the carriage for a free compartment to himself. He looked into the last compartment on the right in the carriage and saw that it was occupied by a girl –Leah. She was sound asleep; lying along the seat with her arm folded underneath her head. He didn't mean to stare, but he was drawn to the sleeping figure and stood there mentally fighting to both stay and leave. _Just leave! You know, put one foot in front of the other towards the –_

"_Hem hem_." Draco turned, cold dread running through his body. It was Elise who had returned from visiting Millicent and Blaise. "And what do you think you're doing?" asked Elise. 

Draco stood there, unable to find words let alone an insult. At last he gripped onto a word, "N-nothing," he stammered and shot her an evil look before dashing back to his own compartment.

When Leah boarded off the train carriage, closely lagging behind her trunk, she searched through the crowd of people in robes of various colours. It took her some time to find her parents; a woman with coffee coloured hair and soft facial expressions standing next to a man with a slightly stern-looking face and dark hair. They both stood near the wall opposite the train, both searching through the massive crowd that roamed, weaved and scattered in front of them. "Mum, Dad!" she shouted and pushed her way frantically. She was so frantic that she didn't see a black cloaked figure also push his way through and collided squarely into his trolley. Both of them lay on the ground sprawled out and both their luggage lay scattered around them. 

"Watch were you're going you -" the voice started to say and Leah brought her head up to see who was speaking. It was Malfoy. 

"Talk for yourself," she muttered and got up to pick her belongings off the ground. Draco also followed her actions and started shoving books, clothes and odd objects blindly into his trunk. While they did this, Leah's parents heard of the commotion, like most people on the platform did, and came forward. Their faces lit up as they saw their daughter pile her books in her trunk neatly and she also looked up and said, "Mum, Dad!"

"Hello, darling," her mother said near-tears, almost squeezing the life out of her as she hugged her. "Hello, pumpkin." It was her father, and Leah playfully punched him and said warningly, "Don't you call me that." 

The family reunion was all well for Leah, but Malfoy was still on the ground picking his things up, occasionally looking sourly up at Leah and her family. He grumbled and shoved the last of his things, slammed the lid shut and sat on it, in order to shut the bulging trunk. He heaved it on to the now battered trolley, after getting the lid to stay on. 

A slender woman with long, blond hair glided to his side and said, "Hello, Draco." He recognised the voice immediately and said, "Hello, mother." she embraced him and him back, but soon realised that this was public and he quickly spaced away from his mother. He looked down and smoothed out a couple of creases in his immaculate black cloak and started to push his way towards the barrier.

The last of Draco that Leah saw for the next two weeks, was his cloaked back that swished in time to his footsteps and was soon drowned in the crowd that swirled around them.

Christmas was a joyous occasion as always in the Harrison household and Leah, her parents and her Uncle, who lived in the attic room, all sat around the table. This Christmas though, was enjoyed most thoroughly as the sky turned grey and the ground was soon covered with a crisp, white blanket of snow. 

Each at the table took turns in opening their Christmas crackers and sat around wearing various hats with assorted oddments stuck on it. Everyone looked quite hilarious, especially her father, who kept on blowing purple feathers out of his eyes. 

By the end of the meal that the house elves had superbly cooked, everyone sat satisfied in the lounge room and started opening their presents. 

A few days beforehand, Leah had gone shopping at Diagon Alley with her mother and took particular interest in a new shop that had been opened recently, called The Weasley Wizard Wheezes. The young owners had given a trial pack of their Skiving Snack boxes once they had found out that she was a student at Hogwarts. They told her many stories of their doings at Hogwarts and Leah eagerly listened to them, until her mother pulled her away to finish their shopping.

Leah now sat on the rugged floor in front of the fire, opening her first present, this one from her beloved uncle. The small parcel wrapped in gold paper, contained a small pen knife. Her uncle sat in a squishy couch close by, watching her and sucking on his ivory pipe that blew multicoloured smoke rings. She went and hugged him 'thank you' and went on to her next present. 

By the time everyone had opened their presents, people moved on to start fiddling with their new gifts. Leah went upstairs with her uncle to his room and sat on a pouffe while her uncle rocked rhythmically in his rocking chair. She talked about her time at Hogwarts and he showed her how to use her pen knife while they munched on pieces of homemade fudge. Leah had her presents spread out in front of her; her pen knife, three new novels, and a bag of assorted sweets. She also had a big block of Honeyduke's chocolate from Elise that had arrived with a screech owl.

Leah loved spending hours at a time in her uncle's room. The space in his room was occupied with moving models of the galaxy and other wild and zany machines that puffed smoke and had multiple pipes twisting and turning around the room. His room was also full of books; one wall filled with them and others were scattered around. There was absolutely no need for any tea tables or night stands, as the piles on the floor were well supplied for the purpose. He had books of every kind imaginable; books on history, discoveries, astrology, maps and atlases, jokes and biology, leather-bound and silk-covered and even muggle literature. The only thing he lacked was an encyclopaedia; once she had questioned him about this and he simply answered that they were only good for collecting dust in alphabetical order. 

Leah loved his sense of humour, and loved his way of wisdom from years of experience living around the world. He was retired now, after working for sometime as an Auror, but age hadn't taken away his wisdom, only increased it. He was one of those special people that you find in your life that always encouraged you to be your best.

Draco also had one of these relationships and this, was his mother. The weekly packages of sweets that was delivered to him for the last six years, was of course sent by his mother. Most of the persuading that Draco did was to his mother, who in turn persuaded his father, a tougher nut to crack. He never considered himself as a 'mummy's boy' but a son that kept a good relationship with his mother. 

Christmas for him, was a quite affair; consisting of only him and his mother. They sat opposite each other at a long, rectangular table and talked quietly in the dark room that was decorated with Christmas decorations, even if it was too dark to see them. His mother was unusually quite for the day and after their Christmas lunch and their exchange of gifts, neither of them had much else to do and went their separate ways. The absence of his father had made a severe change in both Draco and his mother and also took a big chunk in what Draco knew as home. His mother too, was quieter by the day and spent more and more of her time in her wing.

Draco called for a house elf to prepare the sleigh, and for the next hour or so was spent sleighing around the quiet manor. He rugged up in his woollen cloak and tugged at the reigns. The two black horses sped up to take him further out in the field of white. 

Once he had gotten back, his cheeks flushed from the bitter cold, he walked to his wing and sat around doing nothing.

Leah returned from spending most of the afternoon in her uncle's room and went into her bedroom. On her bed, was a Kneazle, a cat-like creature with spotted fur, large ears and a ferret's tail. This was Elise's birthday present that Leah had bought at Diagon Alley. Krysta was coiled at the bottom of her wardrobe, taking a dislike to the new guest. The Kneazle on the other hand, was totally ignoring the python and lay purring on her bedspread. However, this Kneazle was no ordinary Kneazle but was a half-breed of a Jarvey, and could speak. Fortunately, Jarveys would only utter words of insult, but was bred out of everyday use from this particular creature, perhaps the only one of her kind. 

As Leah put down her armful of presents on her dresser top, the Kneazle stoped purring and looked up as she came to sit on her bed. It spoke, "It looks like you got quite a loot out of today, Leah."

"Yeah," she said. The Kneazle was very intelligent and had already leant her name. Of course, the Kneazle being the cautious creature it is, took a few days to become used to Leah. The pet shop owner had warned her of the Kneazle's nature of acting quite severely towards unsavoury and suspicious people and often swore and shot insults towards those.

"So what are you planning on doing for the rest of the day?" the Kneazle asked. 

"Some visitors are coming tonight for tea."

"Oh really, who?" the Kneazle took slight interest.

"Chris Kettleburn and his family," Leah said absent-mindedly.

"And who may that be?" 

"A close friend of mine," she lied, not willing to take it further than that.

Six thirty arrived and at precisely one minute past, a series of loud popes emitted in their hall and there stood three people.

"Flaccus, Amanda!" her mother sped forward and embraced them. "And Chris too, my, haven't you grown since I saw you last and become quite a young man also!" her mother said, embracing him and then standing back to get a better look at him. His sandy hair curled on top of his head and his dark blue eyes shone from the depth of his pupils. 

Leah, thoroughly embarrassed of her mother's antics, shoved her aside and went forward to welcome him. "I've missed you," he quietly said in her ear and kissed her softly on her cheek as she tightened her embrace. She greeted Mr. and Mrs. Kettleburn and invited them into the lounge room. Her father later came out of his study and shook hands with the guests and settled down in a couch. "Can I offer you a drink of some sort?" he casually offered.

"A brandy for me thanks and, a gin and tonic for you darling?" Mr. Kettleburn asked his wife. She nodded with a smile.

"How about you Chris, can I get you anything?" her father offered, but Chris just shook his head and thanked him.

As soon as his father had taken the orders, a house elf standing at the door hurried off, who immediately came back with a tray balanced on its head with the drinks and a plate of nuts.

By the time the brandy pudding was lit, Leah and Chris hadn't had a proper conversation. This continued until the time came for them to leave. They made plans for them to meet again, which would be in a few day and the Kettleburns would also be staying with them for four days. 

"See you then," he said after he kissed her and disapparated.

Leah tried returning his farewell, but was too late.

A/N: Please R&R! Comments would be REALLY appreciated!!!


	10. Train Rides to School

Chapter 10:

Draco spent the last week of his holidays at Diagon Alley with Crabbe and Goyle. All three families stayed at the Leaky Cauldron and spent their time up and around the alley. Draco spent most of his time looking in shops, buying new supplies, pigging out at the ice cream parlour all trailed closely behind by Crabbe and Goyle. Wizard's chess would be the evening activity by the fireside, but towards the end, became all too boring for Draco as it was too easy, and for both Crabbe and Goyle as their opponent was so hard to beat. Their fathers were spending their time at Azkaban prison, so the group of mothers were left together to speak to each other in hushed tones. 

This meant that Draco, Crabbe and Goyle were left on their own to explore the shops and once took a trip down Knockturn Alley. Draco didn't like going down there on his own, but felt more assured now he had his friends with him. Going past a shop full of knives, an old beggar lady sat opposite Borgin & Burkes who suddenly grabbed on to the hem of Draco's cloak. Her hands were dirty and scabbed from bloody scratches and she sat huddled in filthy and holey robes. "Wait, young master, don't go so fast," she said croakily.

"_Let go of me_!" Draco was tugging at his cloak, but the old woman, surprisingly had a firm grasp. Crabbe and Goyle looked at him scaredly and backed away.

"Not so fast there, young master. I don't want anything from you; I want to give something to you." And with that, she let go of his cloak and he stumbled onto the dirty ground. "Listen," she croaked. Draco got up, but didn't leave. The old woman looked up, and to Draco's horror, saw two white-hollow eyes. "Yes, a horrible site, I know. I am blind but I see things that many do not see. I feel things many do not feel and I also have something for you. I see your future and if I'm not mistaken, you will be needing this," she croaked and rummaged around in her robes. She took out something from an inner pocket and grabbed at Draco's hand and placed it in his palm which she held open. "Give this to your future," she said and Draco straightened up to have a look at what was in his hand. 

It was a silver locket suspended from a fine silver chain. He opened it and found a small piece of parchment folded up inside it. He took it out, unfolded the tiny piece of old parchment carefully and read out what was written on it. "There is always hope, if one believes in it. But what does this mean?" he looked down at where the old beggar lady sat.

But she wasn't there. Any trace of her existence had vanished without a trace, only for the faint croak that he heard in the back of his head that said, "Give it to your future."

Leah finally had a chance to talk to Chris on his second visit to her house. Their parents had gone off doing various things and Leah was left to entertain Chris. They sat in front of the fireplace and told jokes and stories of their doings. They talked as old friends, ignoring that they had a more intimate relationship and time naturally passed. Leah had a good time getting a lot of emotional load off her shoulders when she got to complain and carry on about 'certain people'. Chris also had a complaining session about his work colleagues and both were satisfied afterwards. They had a series of very competitive games of wizard's chess in their time together, closely watched and cheered by her uncle. But by the end of his stay, the score was a tie. Chris still kept to his opinion that he had won a round that had been interrupted. Leah also kept to her opinion that she had won that round because she had less moves to conquer his king. 

The time for the Kettleburns to leave, once again, came only too soon and both families now stood in the hall way. Chris was acting in a funny way and didn't return her kiss when she gave him one in farewell. She looked at him with concern, "What's wrong?"

He took his time to answer but when he did, he said it very softly as if straining to get his voice out. "Leah," he said and looked at her in the eye. "I haven't been totally honest with you in the last couple of days."

Leah felt a pang in her stomach but urged on, "What do you mean, Chris?"

"We've got a special relationship; you know that, don't you? But for the last couple of days, I've felt that our relationship isn't really one of mutual love; do you know what I mean? What I mean, is that I'd feel more privileged if you'd be my friend, not my girlfriend.  I know this is going to be hard, and believe it or not, it's hard for me to say this to you too. I'm sorry if I've hurt your feelings but it just doesn't feel right for me and I don't want to keep on going like this and hurting your feelings even more. I hope you can understand that."

Leah stood there in a state of shock throughout Chris's break-up speech, but smiled weakly when he finished and held both her hands. She didn't need to cry. He quickly pulled her towards him, hugged her and patted gently on her head. The last she said to him before he disappeared with a 'pop' was "I'll see you around, friend," and smiled.

Leah sighed as she sat with Elise in a compartment of the Hogwarts Express. When she first saw Elise, she thought of the Kneazle hidden in her trunk and thought of the exciting things in store for Elise - later. By that time, she had explained to her what had happened during her time at home and just finished telling her story of her break-up with Chris. 

Elise looked at her sympathetically and said, "At least he's still your friend. I don't think the situation of your break-up could have gotten any better than that."

"Yeah, I guess you're right. How was your holiday, by the way?" Leah realised that she hadn't heard Elise's side of the story yet.

"It was good as usual. I went out with Marcus a couple of times and I had a big family gathering on Boxing Day."

Leah suddenly perked up at the mention of a boy's name. "Who's this Marcus boy you've been seeing in the last fortnight?'

Elise reddened and said, "He's name's Marcus Flint and he used to be the Quidditch Captain for Slytherin. I met him earlier this year at the game against Gryffindor -"

"So that's who you're 'old friend' was! I was wondering who you were writing so many letters to." Leah burst out.

"Yeah, well I couldn't just go out and tell the world, could I? We went to Diagon Alley once, and we met up with Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle. Those three were staying there for a week, I think he said. But anyhow, Lucius Malfoy and Bevin Flint, Marcus's father, are kind of close friends – went to school together or something – so Marcus keeps up ties with Malfoy. Suppose knowing the Malfoys wouldn't be a bad thing; they've got a lot of influence and he also knows a lot of people."

"Except for one small fact; _Lucius__ Malfoy is a Death Eater_. Didn't you say that you shouldn't meddle with people from the Dark side?" Leah pointed out.

"I know, but what's the harm in _knowing_ them? It's not like I'm signing a lifetime contract."

Leah looked at her worriedly, "Alright, but just watch your step. I don't want to lose a friend already."

Elise looked at her and smiled, "Don't worry so much, Leah. That's something that you do too much now a days."

It was around about this time that the door to the compartment slid open and three people came in. "Why, if it isn't Leah and Elise!" Draco said in a 'thoroughly delighted' voice and rubbed his hands together with glee. _Ok, so what happened to the whole 'Muggle-lover' thing?_ thought Leah.

"Hi Draco and _what are you doing here_?" Leah asked, not amused.

"Oh, just come for a little chit-chat," he said airily. Crabbe and Goyle slumped down either side of Elise who looked a little intimidated by the two boulders sitting next to her. Draco sat on the other side of the seat Leah sat in, and Leah, not happy with the arrangement scooted as far away from Draco as possible. Draco saw this and said, "Look, I'm not going to bight." She looked at him with distrust and Draco scowled at her. 

Elise gave an uneasy look between the two and changed the subject. "So, Draco," she said, raising the tone a little. "What did you get up to in your holidays?"

"Nothing special; went back home, opened a few presents, then spent some time with my friends," he didn't bother asking the two girls about their holiday.

"Oh, hi Draco!" a loud interruption came from the compartment door. Pansy stood, in a leaning-against-one-side-of-the-door pose. A shiver was visible, running up through Draco's spine at the voice. "Hi Pansy," he's voice was reluctant. "Well, we'd better be off!" he said and motioned for Crabbe and Goyle to follow, but soon was stoped by Pansy.

"Going so soon?" she asked in a sickly sweet voice. "Why, you only just came in. how about you stay longer and tell us all about your holiday. I'm sure you've got lots of things to tell us about."

"No, really. I've got to get going. We only came in here to say a quick 'hi', isn't that right guys?" Crabbe and Goyle nodded their heads and Draco's uneasy face was starting to perspire.

Pansy looked disappointed and said, "Well, maybe some other time." And Draco, Crabbe and Goyle hastily left.

As soon as Draco's relieved face had passed Pansy, her expression changed to a scowl and she growled at Leah, "You just _had_ to put him off didn't you?" and stormed off. 

"Boy, does she have a major mood swing or what," Elise said quietly.

Leah agreed, "yeah, from here to Morocco."

Draco's head popped around the edge of the door and said, "Has she gone?"

"Yup," Elise said, shooting a look at Leah that made her giggle.

"What's your problem?" Draco demanded.

"Nothing," Leah said quickly and seised laughing. Draco raised an eyebrow. Leah cleared her throat, "Um, where's Crabbe and Goyle?"

"Hiding out somewhere," Draco said carelessly. "I told them that they shouldn't move a muscle or else the evil dragon will find them."

Everyone cracked up laughing. Once it had died down, Elise asked, "So tell me; why are you here?"

"Simple – better company."

"Aww, I'm so honoured," Leah said sarcastically.

"You should be," Draco said. "No, seriously. What are the chances of me, out of the seven billion people in the world, sitting here in this particular train, out of all the trains in the world, talking to you, out of all the people in this train?"

"Don't know, don't care," Elise said as Draco went through another long list of odds.

'Well, you should. It's important to know how lucky you are to be in my presence," Draco said, looking important.

"Listen; do us a favour and leave. If we're so lucky to be in your presence, then the whole world would be unlucky that they would have died out in the first place," Elise said.

"That's a bit harsh," he said looking hurt.

"Oh, I can be worse than that."

"Gees, what's up your -"

Crabbe and Goyle walked in looking around quickly and behind their back, acting all spy-like. "Don't worry, Draco. There're no dragons around here now."

Draco rolled his eyes and said, "You idiots, I was refiring to Pansy. Honestly, you two are so stupid that you'd have to draw on your forehead with lipstick to make up your mind."

Leah half-kicked Draco and said, "Don't be so mean," though she was laughing while saying so.

Draco smirked and looked at Leah, "So are you Miss Do-right, or something?"

"Well, if you want to keep a friendship, you shouldn't go destroying it."

Draco considered and said, "True," and went on talking as if nothing had happened at all.

While Draco exercised his mouth, Leah looked around at the mob in the compartment. There were the two giants, Crabbe and Goyle, sitting with their broad shoulders hunched topped off with blank faces. They bore no intellectual facial expressions – just a straight, feelingless, stupid face. In between the two boulders of a kind was Elise. She sat there, a bit bored of Draco's holiday anecdotes. Her long, straight brown hair was loosely tied back and her chocolate coloured eyes came to meet Leah's. Leah smiled and Elise winked, hidden behind a lock of hair that hung around her face. She then went on to the last person in the room, apart from herself. Draco, the loudest, keenest and the most boastful of the five that sat in the compartment, sat next to Leah. His white-blond hair was perfectly slicked back as always, and he wore a black robe with silver linings. His hands moved animatedly with his stories and the green scarf that hung around his neck was now laid on the seat in between them, forgotten. 

Draco's turn of speech was over and he finally moved the subject onto Elise. She started talking and Draco sat politely interested in what she had to say. But his attention wasn't lasting long enough and his eyes moved towards Leah and met. 

Leah blushed, being caught in the act, and tried lowering her gaze to the ground, but was captured in the endlessly grey eyes. His eyes, she thought. His eyes were grey, grey as always, but something had changed in them. Leah disconnected from his eyes and looked out of the window. She realised looking out at the cold winter-driven sky; his eyes were grey, but weren't cold.

Elise saw that the eyes of the two people in front of her had met and she smiled slightly, knowing secrets that neither of them knew.

A/N: R&R please!!! I really need some constructive criticism! Thanks!


	11. Secret Potions

Chapter 11:

A/N: Just another reminder – Blaise is a girl in this story! Thanks!

A week after returning to Hogwarts, everyone was back into the 'swing' of things. Schoolwork was mounting on everyone's schedules and the teacher's migraines had returned. For Leah, life had become better than before except for Pansy acting more and more malicious towards Leah by the day. This was probably because Blaise had gone past their compartment the day they were returning to school and mentioned to Pansy that Draco had gone back in there. 

Leah knew that Pansy was preaching to her friends of her 'bad influence'. However, she didn't think that Pansy's preachings would actually be taken into action – that was until one time during charms. 

Professor Flitwick had been teaching the sixth-years body enchantments and had decided to put people together in pairs to work these charms on each other. Professor Flitwick stood on his towering pile of books and paired people together by random name picking from his roll. "Miss Parkinson, ah yes, I'll put you with Miss Gashmorre here, Mr Malfoy, you will pair up with Mr Crabbe and Mr Goyle, I'm sorry to part you away from your work buddy but I'll put you with Miss Zabini. Miss Bullstrode will go with Miss Harrison and…" he went on until everyone was paired up with someone in the class. Even before Leah moved from her seat, she could see that Pansy was hurriedly whispering into Millicent's ear and taking sidelong glances towards Leah. She felt her self become nervous as she faced Millicent with only a long stick protruding from her clenched hand.

"Everyone, face your partners. Now, now, there's no need to look so scared Mr. Goyle. Now, face your partners and you will do so civilly and will take it in turns to put charms on each other. On the count of three. One, two three!" he squeaked.

Millicent swished her wand and with a violet light, Leah's view was instantly magnified. She had been put the Bubblehead Charm and everything around her looked oblong and near by, Blaise's head was stretched from the ceiling to nearly the floor. She quickly put the reverse charm on herself and the bubble surrounding her head disappeared with a pop.

Leah faced the broad shouldered, square-jawed Millicent and incanted a charm with a swish of her wand. From Millicent's eyes, popped out binoculars strong enough to see what would be happening fifty miles away if there was a clear view. Leah doubted that Millicent couldn't see the pores in her skin. But Millicent quickly changed her eyes back to normal and returned to the task at hand.

The class went on, but time went by quickly as everybody tried getting ample goes at charming their partner. Leah noticed that Pansy had kept a close eye on her and Millicent, sneering every time a charm was put on Leah. Millicent had performed the nastier of the charms on Leah, as instructed to do so by Pansy, Leah had no doubt. But by the time Leah had walked out of the classroom door, she was quite glad to get rid of her.

But this wasn't the last time Leah would be paired up with Millicent. Double Potions was the last lesson for the day and not surprisingly, Professor Snape paired people up in the class and once again, Leah was landed with Millicent. She caught Pansy winking at Millicent and Leah had a gut feeling that she wasn't going to enjoy this particular lesson. 

Today's potion was the Animatus Potion, where added a few drops of any essence from any animal, could change you into the exact replica of the animal for two hours. He tapped on the board with his wand as done each lesson and magically appeared with the exact measures of ingredients and the method of creating a handy potion, given that it is used at a minimum. While drawling on about the usefulness of this potion, Snape cautioned everyone that taking more than ten drops of the potion in a space of less than 24 hours would result in you staying the animal form for ever. 

Preparing the ingredients, Millicent leant close and hissed, "_Psst_."

Leah looked up. "What?" she asked and Millicent answered with her eyes lowered and her lips hardly moving. "You know I'm not meant to talk to you, right?"

"Yeah," Leah whispered. "Captain Pansy's orders, huh."

Millicent kept on cutting up her daisy roots while she spoke, "Yeah, something like that. Listen, you'd better be careful – Pansy's planning to do something that would make you regret you were even born. And some good advise – _stay clear of Malfoy_. You don't want to be caught hanging around Malfoy with Pansy close behind you."

"I've heard. She's really in love with him, isn't she? Don't you guys ever get sick of her?"

"Of course we do! She yapps on about him 24/7 and she just doesn't get the signs coming from him, that poor guy. But we don't have the heart to tell her that though, especially with her type of family backing her up. All of our parents are close friends but the Parkinsons aren't very popular among us, I can tell you. They always seem see themselves as more superior than the others and like to walk all over us. But the Parkinsons are experts on curses, so you don't want to get on the wrong side of them."

"I can imagine," said Leah. "Pansy loves to control people, doesn't she?"

"Oh yeah," Millicent said. "Anyway, I should stop talking in case my cover blows. Just remember to watch yourself – Pansy's capable of murder if it's what she thinks is right."

Leah silently nodded as a shiver ran up her spine.

At the end of the class, as Leah was packing Elise came up to her and started whispering in her ear. "Do you know what Pansy was trying to make me do? She tried to persuade me to stop being friends with you. She had this crummy reason that you're bad influence and stuff, but she's definitely not the convincing type. I mean, she should speak for herself, for crying out loud."

Leah wasn't surprised. But she didn't make any comment but fill her glass bottle with the potion that just scraped the barrel for marks and put it with other submitted bottles of student's potions. Before emptying her cauldron, she got out her spare bottle and quickly dipped it into the potion and filled it. She wedged the cork in and slipped it into her pocket. Seeing that this may come in handy one day, she took it.

January left and February arrived, bringing with it a somewhat dreary Valentine's day. Leah was now single and couldn't share the festive season with Elise, but took time in noticing small attempts for a chance of love from the people around her. Pansy of course, had brought up chocolate boxes and red roses all to give to Draco alone, and Crabbe too had tried achieving something by giving a wilted bunch of daffodils to Millicent. Elise shared her festivity over the post to her sweetheart and the post even brought Leah something special for the day. It was a card, from Chris but only signed at the bottom as, "Your friend, Chris." No hard feelings, Leah thought. 

Throughout February Leah had developed a habit. This habit of hers was to sneak into the broom shed and take some of the brooms out for a fly. Leah had been flying in her backyard for sometime now, but had never been a fantastic flyer. Ever since the Quidditch match, Leah had an urge to fly and the only way to satisfy herself was this. This though, was getting quite hard to do, since the next Quidditch match was coming up; Slytherin versus Ravenclaw. To the Slytherins, this was no big deal and most on the team was feeling pretty cruisey. Ravenclaw on the other hand, was training harder, earlier and longer by the day and Leah was finding it hard to get a time to fly on her own and in secrecy. About a week before the match, it was near to impossible for Leah to find a vacant spot in which she could use the stadium and eventually gave up to wait until the match was over. 

That week was probably the most agonising for Leah because of her 'cravings' for flying. She longed to have the wind hissing in her ear and playing with her hair. She longed to be moving from up high and then plummeting down to the ground the next second. She loved having control over the broom and taking swerves and doing loop-the-loops. Flying was Leah's dream, her love and her life; ever since she was small, she would dream of flying in her sleep and would always play with the birds in the back yard.

The day of the Quidditch match arrived and Leah want with the Slytherin crowd to spectate and cheer on the team. Though, this was probably not needed as the game started and finished in the space of 15 minutes at the most. It seemed to Leah that as soon as the players kicked off the ground, Malfoy went diving from an extremely high spot and swerve halfway to the ground holding up the golden ball fluttering helplessly in his hand. 

On return from the Quidditch pitch, there was a minor celebration held in the common room, but since it was no big feat, the party only lasted only as long as the food did. 

That afternoon, Leah went into the library to look up essence potions. The book was easy enough to find, but what essence of animal you wanted to make was a hard choice. First of all, the ingredients from some animals were just too hard to get hold of and secondly, the choice was too large. Obviously you wouldn't want to change into a dragon, since it would be too big to roam around the school grounds but you didn't want to change into an ant or a mosquito where you would most likely be squashed by someone. Someone like Pansy, thought Leah and she shivered at the thought.

Common pets were of Leah's interest but it seemed too ordinary to change into a cat or a dog. A mouse was out of the question as she would probably be Krysta's dinner. No, birds were what stopped Leah. Ravens, parrots, budgies, pigeons and doves – the choice was up to you. Leah opted for the eagle as it suited her best and turned to the page. 

The method was easy enough. The problem though, lay with the ingredients; dozen eagle tail feathers, an onze of finely chopped daisy roots, armadillo bile, scarab beetles… where was she going to get these things from? This answer lay with Blaise.

While Leah sat around the common room later on, talking to Elise, Blaise walked in, the stomach of her robes bulging. She scurried in and gave a sigh as she dumped the hidden objects on the coffee table. Little bottles of liquid, unidentifiable dried up objects, a few fangs and some roots tied in a bundle fell out and scattered about the table. Leah gaped at Blaise's loot and asked her where she had gotten these things from.

Blaise had a mysterious smile and answered, "Oh, just got a couple of things from Snape's storage cupboard. It's not too hard to get in there; you just have to make sure that he's not there. Fortunately for us, he never locks it and he doesn't tend to notice some things have gone – he just goes ahead and fills it up again."

"Would you be using some of those things?" Leah asked.

"Uh, I might be. What sort of things were you after – because if you want I can take you there to get some more."

"Um, I'll need daisy roots, eagle tail feathers, scarab beetles, armadillo bile, and a couple of other things," Leah went though the list of things written on a piece of parchment. She hoped that none of them would be questioning her, and fortunately none of them did. In fact, it seemed quite normal for students to make secret potions in their own time.

"I haven't got some of those things here, so let's say tomorrow? We can go in and get a couple of things. I thing I forgot to get some snail shells anyhow…"

It was precisely 6:00 the next day when Leah and Blaise crept into the darkened dungeon. There was no sign of anybody in the room and the desks lay in shadow of the afternoon. At the furthest end of the room was the dark object just distinguishable as the cupboard in which Snape kept special ingredients needed to make the more complicated of potions. The door of the cupboard was unlocked but creaked eerily as they opened it, the echoes bouncing off the stone walls. 

Everything was neatly labelled and nothing stood where it didn't belong. To the right was little glass bottles of liquid; blood, bile, tears and other concoctions, and to the left were baskets of dried objects; plants, roots, fruits, leaves and unidentifiable dried up thingies. In the centre was a space where bundles of various potion ingredients hung; feathers, claws, strings of teeth and garlic. Glass jars stood underneath them, strange things bobbling in the liquid; mushrooms, eyes, foetuses, intestines, even whole snakes. Just looking at the snake gave Leah shiver and jumped when Blaise whispered to her from her daydream. "Come on, don't dawdle!" 

Leah scanned through the alphabetically labelled objects and picked out small amounts from the bundles. Once they had gone through the list, they shut the door of the cupboard and quickly exited the dungeon. 

A/N: Please R&R! Just a warning for those people who like shorter stories… I'm not like you – I like stories that take a long time to boil. I'm going to make sure that Leah and Draco are going to go through "hell and high water" (thanks for that Sona Camdyn!) before they're going to realise that either of them exist. Hope you enjoy!


	12. Eagle's Essence

Chapter 12: Eagle's essence

By midday Saturday, Leah finished making the eagle's essence. The cooled liquid now stood in a glass bottle in a secret compartment of her trunk, but didn't stay in there for long. Excited thoughts kept on creeping in her mind and thought that it was time to fly. She grabbed the two bottles one containing the essence of eagle and the other with the vital potion that could change her into any animal.

The empty classroom was bathed in pools of afternoon light. Clearing a couple of desks away and making some room for herself, she sat down and bought out the two bottles. Ten drops, no more, no less was put into the bottle and she lightly shook the bottle containing the Animatus potion. The potion turned from a light green to a vibrant scarlet and Leah gulped, not sure about her actions. She began to worry – what if I can't change back into a human again? What if the essence was wrong? What if…

She shook her head. This is stupid, she thought. She took the cork out of the bottle and let two drops of the potion fall into her mouth. The cool drops were tasteless and no immediate effect came. That's strange, she though as she wedged the cork back into top of the bottle. She slipped the two bottles inside her pocket, but as she did so a hot surge erupted from the depth of her body and Leah crouched, her eyes shut tight and holding her chest. The heat intensified and by the time it was so hot she thought she would scream, it fainted away and Leah was just crouching but no longer holding onto her chest.

She opened her eyes and looked about her. Everything around her was normal; but it was she who had changed. She looked down at her own body and saw her chest covered in plumes of golden feathers. She looked behind her and saw that two wings were attached to her back and she spread her wings, still gaping at them with disbelief. She stretched her wings to its full extent and flapped them. They carried her light body towards the open window and perched on the sill. The world in front of her seemed so exciting from where she sat. She could see for miles around, better than any binocular-eye charm. She had a whole new world to explore; only this time the sky wasn't a limit.

She spread her wings and flew into the vast open sky. It was a dream come true. She sawed above the treetops of the Forbidden Forest and around the lake. She flew so low that she could skim the water with the tips of her magnificent wings. For a glorious hour she flew around the grounds of Hogwarts. Around every tower and post and she flew to the Quidditch pitch and weaved her way in and out and around the goal posts. But time drifted on and was snatched away only too soon for Leah.

However she didn't realise this and flew to an ash tree by the lake. She sat gracefully at the topmost branch but soon heard voices coming from directly under her. She flew down a couple of branches and saw three boys sitting around talking. It was Malfoy, and his goons, Crabbe and Goyle. Something evil sprang up inside Leah and she stayed, listening to their conversation, hidden from the tree's leaves.

"I think Millicent likes me," a low voice said, and Leah guessed this must be Crabbe. "She hasn't been throwing so many curses on me lately. Do you reckon the bunch of flowers did the job at Valentine's Day?"

"Probably," said Malfoy's voice, clearly distinguishable from that of Crabbe. The tone in his voice though was of one of no interest.

"How about you Goyle, have you been able to steal Blaise's heart back from Montague's?" Malfoy said, a sneer could be heard in his voice.

"No," said Goyle his voice a disappointed growl.

"You got an eye for someone, Malfoy?" one of the goons asked.

"Not really, I'm too busy trying to get away from Pansy. I wish she'd get the idea though. I've told her on countless times that I have no intention, what so ever, to go out with her and every time I say that, I get landed with a howler. But can you imagine _anyone_ going out with her? Imagine kissing that bulldog. Ugh!"

Leah, hidden, but listening to every single word said in this conversation, could feel herself sneer. Pansy, Pansy, Pansy, she thought. When will you ever realise that you're wasting your time on a pig-headed git sitting right underneath me? But a mention of her name caught Leah in her thoughts.

"Hey, what do you think of that new girl, Leah Harrison?" Malfoy asked the two.

Leah silently moved down a couple of branches to get a better hearing.

Goyle shrugged, "I dunno. She's alright – been nice to me since she came."

Leah smiled. He's a good guy, she thought.

But Malfoy's reply was less than pleasing. He growled, "That's what you think, huh? Well I think not. How can she have to nerve to barge into this school and then be taken into our hands and make friends with the filthy Gryffindors? By the way she's acted, it's surprising that she even went to Durmstrang – I thought they taught dark magic there, but she's as dark as god. All she's done while being here was come and put stains on our reputation. Slytherin of all should be extra careful of who joins the circle of friendship."

"Calm down Draco," Crabbe said, his eyes wide. "Gees, you need some anger management or something to let it all out. That's not healthy, you know."

"Yeah, yeah," snapped Draco. He took a deep breath and rubbed his temples. "Sorry, some of Pansy must have rubbed off onto me." He thought again about what he said, "Ok, that didn't so sound good."

Leah's anger subsided slightly as Malfoy rephrased what he meant. Shortly afterwards, Crabbe and Goyle left to back up to the castle, but Malfoy stayed on. She swooped down to the ground and came to land beside Malfoy. He jumped when he saw the eagle approach him, but didn't move from where he sat. Surprisingly though, he talked to her. "Hello, you're not from around here, are you?" he asked and extended his hand to pat the bird. Leah moved away slightly, and Malfoy took back his hand. Don't you dare touch me, she thought.

He kept on talking though looking a little embarrassed, "You from Africa? Yeah, I thought you might be. Is it nice there?" Leah silently laughed – he was asking all these question when he knew very well that she couldn't answer him.

He talked to her for at least ten minutes; just blabbing on about random things. His house, family, friends and all the time he asked her what she thought as if involving her in his life. By the end, Malfoy's hand reached over again, but this time Leah didn't move away. She stood there as Malfoy's fingers tickled behind her head. Leah would not have normally liked this, but since now she was a bird, the strange custom was somewhat pleasing. Leah's eyes began to droop as Malfoy kept on tickling her neck. But he stopped and started talking again making Leah's eyes blink open.

"So what do you think of this Leah girl?" it was the same question asked to Crabbe and Goyle. A fantastic person and a good looking one, if you want to know, thought Leah but before she could even answer him (even though she couldn't), he started talking.

"Yeah, she's alright, I guess. But she's a rude bitch sometimes. And how she just goes up to those Gryffindors and makes friends with them, it drives me up the wall sometimes. I swear, the worst thing she could do is to go out with Scarhead – I could seriously puke."

_How interesting_, though Leah. Anything to make this git pay. He sighed, closed his eyes and let his head fall backwards onto the Ash tree on which he sat against. Leah saw from the watch tied to Malfoy's wrist was pointing to nearly five. This meant that Leah's time would be over soon. Leah smirked with the information she now possessed and flew away silently from Malfoy.

Malfoy, who still had his eyes closed started talking again, not aware that the eagle had flown away. "But you know, she's alright. Definitely a better choice than Pansy. I suppose she's not that bad, is she?" he asked and looked up. But the bird had gone. He looked around him; left, right and above but he was alone again, sitting on the ground under the Ash tree. He gave a short laughed and said under his breath, "Bloody birds."

Leah reached the window to the empty classroom and stood around waiting for the last few minutes to wear away. At last a surge of heat penetrated through her body and left as quickly as it came, and Leah found herself standing in the middle of the room, arms out stretched as if about to fly. The magnificent wings had gone and not even a trace of her experience could be found. Except for one thing that Leah didn't notice; it was a feather from her wing that was stuck in her ponytail.

By the time she walked out, in time for dinner she would have passed at least a dozen people, none of which noticed this. The only person that did notice however was the one and only Draco Malfoy. He sat near her and as she turned away from him to talk to Elise, he looked up to see a golden feather glitter in her dark hair. He tilted his head sideways reminiscing of his afternoon. He shrugged, maybe she had encountered the eagle as well.

At this point in time, Elise noticed that Malfoy was looking at Leah in a strange way; unlike his usual spiteful self. She smiled a little and treasured the little secret.

While Leah didn't have enough time to change into an eagle over the week, she took the time to blow the dust off some of the brooms in the brooms shed. Every afternoon, she got a broom out and carried it off to the pitch. It was her time away from life; an hour to herself, in the air where the ground grew small and nothing could stop her.

However, Malfoy also had an 'addiction'. Though, he didn't need to steal broomsticks; he had his own Nimbus Two Thousand and One – one of the best.

These two both had a dream to fly but the time for them to meet finally came. Malfoy, after a difficult day of avoiding Pansy, plotting Harry's fall and any other mischief that had to be made, came to the Quidditch pitch, his broom leaning on his shoulder, to find that his private time had been bombarded by none other than Leah. He growled and leapt on his broom and kicked off, soaring through the air and zooming towards the flying figure.

"What the hell are you doing here?"

Leah tuned around, "Flying; is that a crime?" she looked at him coldly before adding, "And why are you here? Quidditch practise should be over by now."

"I like flying. I don't see why I can't do so in my own time," he said trying to look angry. Even though he didn't want to admit it, she wasn't a bad flyer. But he pushed that aside and concentrated on being angry with her. He wasn't going to blow his cover just because of a stupid muggle-lover like her. He changed the subject, "So, have you just started to fly?"

"No, what makes you say that?" she looked at him wearily.

He sneered, "'cause you don't seem so experienced."

Leah narrowed her eyes with anger, "then why don't you show me, if you're such a fantastic flyer?"

Malfoy didn't expect this, "uh, alright." He flew ahead and did a couple of broom tricks. He looked back at Leah and she flew towards him, her determined face focused with concentration. She did every trick, in the same order and perfectly the same to Malfoy's attempts. She didn't even falter or fly off course. She came up beside Malfoy and smiled triumph.

He was unable to hide his astonished expression. She's not going to be an easy one to get rid of, thought Draco.

After their encounter at the Quidditch pitch, Leah started planning. It was a plan to make Malfoy suffer to his words. She was going to sacrifice herself just to see Malfoy hurt, angry, anything but happy.

She started with spending more time around the Gryffindors. She could feel Malfoy cringe every double potions with Gryffindor and she would greet them and work with them. This, however, didn't have a good effect on any of the other Slytherins either. Elise pulled her up after one particular lesson when Leah went as far as working with Callisto as Annie was sick.

"What do you think you're playing at? You're upsetting the whole system we have here in this school," Elise said.

"I'm just trying to play revenge against someone," was all Leah said.

Leah didn't give up however hard Elise tried to stop her, but pushed the revenge level up a notch. Nearly every afternoon possible, Leah would climb up to Gryffindor Tower and spend time with Callisto, Annie, Harry, Ron and Hermione, who she was introduced to later on. In one particular conversation, the talk of house elves came up and Hermione questioned Leah thoroughly about their wages, holidays, working hours, sick leaves, blah, blah, blah. The conversation, fortunately didn't last very long.

Malfoy grew very pale and malicious towards Leah by the day, but if he thought that Leah had finished, he was wrong. This was Leah's finale to her revenge.

Over the days Leah had spent in Gryffindor common room, she had gotten to know Harry quite well. So well in fact that one day, when she had walked back to the common room with him, he asked for her company at Hogsmeade just before they opened the portrait. The fat lady in the portrait gushed and whooped when over hearing the conversation and pushed Leah to say 'yes'. But Leah didn't need to be asked twice – the word was out before the portrait could even swing open.

Harry blushed slightly and smiled. His green eyes sparkled as he waited for her to go in first. Leah didn't mind this bit of the revenge; Harry had quite grown on her. He was quite cute anyhow and if asked the question again, even without the revenge factor, she would still have said yes.

The rumours spread fast, thanks to the faster-than-light rumour spreading squad situated in the paintings around the castle. The famous Harry Potter was going out with 'the exchange student'. Pansy however didn't mind the situation between Harry and Leah; it only increased her chances with Malfoy. Malfoy though, was very pale and would rarely be seen in the same room together. Leah knew she had pressed the right buttons and the right buttons she had pressed.

Elise had been concerned about Leah over the last week or so that the rumours about Harry and Leah flew around and had a chat with her. They sat on Elise's bed talking, Elise trying to get to the bottom of it all.

"Why are you doing this?" she asked.

"Because I like -"

"And don't say because you like him, I know it's not true."

"I _do_ like him. He's kind of grown on me over the last couple of weeks."

"Come off it, Leah. I've seen the way you look at Malfoy. You cringe every time Pansy is near him, you look sad whenever he's not there. Have you noticed this?"

Leah thought for a moment. She hadn't even thought about Draco, except that she wanted him to suffer as much as possible. Leah bit her lip.

A/N: Please R&R! Thanks _so_ much to everyone who reviewed!!!


	13. Revenge is Bittersweet

Chapter 13:

Leah still kept to her revenge plan even if she couldn't stop thinking about what Elise had said to her. She didn't want to believe it, and how could she have all those facial expressions and not know they were there? She avoided Malfoy as much as possible and still planned on going to Hogsmeade with Harry. Thinking about Harry made her stomach squeal with guilt, but she stuck with it. Harry wasn't a bad choice anyhow, she kept on telling herself that. He's sweet, a sportsman, got beautiful eyes… she counted all the pros of Harry off on her fingers and eventually made herself feel good enough to head to the Gryffindor common room.

Once she had gotten to the portrait, she greeted the fat lady and gave the password to walk in. On entry, she found Harry and Ron quietly talking by the fire. She approached them but neither of them stoped the conversation. She sat next to Harry and joined in on the conversation. They were talking about Quidditch, which wasn't a surprise but since Leah had some idea about the game, teams and people, the two were happy to let Leah into the argument. The argument though, wasn't easy to resolve so it gradually moved on to the following weekend; a Hogsmeade weekend. Leah looked shyly towards Harry, who was blushing and smiled when their eyes met. Ron looked between them a grin spreading across his freckly face. Harry looked at Ron, "What?" he asked.

Ron desperately tried to take off his grin, although it didn't work and said quickly, "Nothing."

Leah grew uncomfortable and moved the subject onto Ron. "So Ron, are you going to Hogsmeade with anyone?"

"Nope, just boring old me again," he looked slightly flattened.

"Don't you have anyone in mind to ask them to come with you?" Harry asked.

Ron turned pink when asked this and said, "Well, I suppose I could ask Hermione. She's nice, even though she doesn't let us copy her homework."

"That's a great idea! I've heard through the grapevine that she likes you," Leah said.

Ron's face lit up but soon was flattened again, "but I could never say that to Hermione."

"Say what to me, Ron?"

It was Hermione, returning from the library with Annie and Callisto. Ron shot a panicked look at Harry, who motioned with his eyes to go and ask her. Hermione stood opposite Ron and waited patiently. Ron took a deep breath and said slowly, "Do you want to come to Hogsmeade with me this weekend, Hermione?"

Ron looked at her pleadingly. Hermione smiled gently, "Of course, I will!"

Everyone whooped and Hermione went over to hug him. She said quietly in his ear, "Don't leave it so long next time, alright?" Ron nodded and hugged her back.

..........................................................................

It was finally the Hogsmeade weekend and Leah now sat with Harry, Callisto, Annie, Dean, Ron and Hermione at a large round table in the middle of the bustling Three Broomsticks. They all chatted happily, occasionally sipping at their Butterbeers. Everything was going pretty well, until Malfoy walked into the pub lagging behind his goons, Crabbe and Goyle. This wasn't an unexpected scene; nearly everyone who went to Hogsmeade also stopped by at The Three Broomsticks. But this time, Malfoy saw the group of Gryffindor friends huddled around a table and saw that Leah was among them, he didn't like what he saw.

"Boys, follow me," he said and they stalked towards the table. Harry was the first to notice the intruder and shot up, wearing an expression of nothing less than disgust.

"No need to stand up for me," Malfoy said, acting gracious as if asked to join the table. "My, my, don't we have a gathering. Let's see, we've got Potty, Weasel, Mudblood; the Dream Team is never seen apart, and who do we have here? Why, if it isn't the Muggle-lover."

"Shut up, Malfoy. Why should it matter to you that I would rather make friends with those of muggle heritage than with a filthy inbred scum like you?"

The people around the table gaped at her anger. Annie let out a low whistle and smiled at Callisto in a knowing way.

Malfoy stood silent and glared at Leah. How dare she insult my family, he thought. "You'd better watch what you say," he said in a dangerously soft voice and turned with a swish of his robes and left to order a Butterbeer.

"Wow, go Leah," said Ron. Leah though didn't smile but looked after the black figure sit down at a nearby table, disgusted.

The table gradually settled back into their conversation, but Harry didn't join in. he turned to Leah and said quietly, "did you want to go somewhere more private?"

Leah nodded and they excused themselves and went outside.

Outside, winter had moved away and bulbs and blossoms were starting to gain colour. Spring was definitely upon them and it was refreshing to walk about in sunshine that was warm against their backs. Neither of them talked much; partly because they were a little embarrassed and couldn't think of a suitable subject of which to discuss.

Eventually, they came up to the gates of the Shrieking Shack and stood there silently listening to each others puffed breathing. Harry hung his arms over the fence and Leah lent on the bars and started to play with the dirt on the tip of her shoe. She hated awkward silences, especially when there's something you wanted to say, but couldn't find what it was that you wanted to say. But it was Harry who broke the silence first.

"What's it like living with the Slytherins?"

"Um," she said, trying to think of the appropriate words. "It's not too bad, I guess. There are a couple of people you have to be careful around, but once you get to know them, they're quite decent people."

Harry looked at her, mildly surprised, "Even Death Eater's children?"

"Uha – even them." Leah didn't think this was the best subject to discuss; it often made Leah get a panic sensation in her stomach, all this stuff about war. She cleared her throat and thought quickly of something else to talk about. "So... what's it like living with the Gryffindors?" Damn, she thought, could I get any more original?

"It's great. But you know what it's like. I'd never change houses; I love being with the people in Gryffindor. It's friendly, comfortable, warm… it's just great."

"Yeah, I've felt that way while I've been there. You guys have definitely made me feel welcome, even if I'm staying with the Slytherins. You especially," she said and gave him a warm smile.

Harry's smile stretched, "Really?" Leah nodded. "Well, you make me feel like a special person, just being with you. I like you, you know. And I think I mean it," his face reddened and he quickly looked down, overwhelmed of the embarrassment.

"You _are_ special, Harry," Leah said and looked at him straight in the eye. He looked up and his green eyes were so strong that they penetrated through hers. He lent closer to her, his lips getting closer and closer hers. But before he could plant his kiss on hers, her stomach gave her a guilty squirm and Leah fought hard to push it down. But she couldn't stand it any more; she didn't really like him and she was only doing this because she wanted to get back at Malfoy. Harry's lips met Leah's cheek as she quickly turned her face away. Harry straightened, taking in what had happened.

"I'm sorry; I'm just not ready yet…" Leah started to say, but Harry cut her off.

"No, it's my fault. I shouldn't have rushed into things."

"It doesn't mean I don't like you though," Leah quickly added.

Harry didn't say anything, but just smiled though somewhat weakly. His face was tinged from the embarrassment. "Maybe we should head back."

.............................................................................

Once Leah got back to her common room in the dark and dank dungeon, she came to meet Elise who was seated in front of the coffee table. She looked up, but showed no expressions. Leah pulled herself towards her and fell into a couch. "You couldn't do it, could you?" Elise asked shortly.

"No," Leah said. Se had a tingling all along that Elise would be keeping a close eye on her, and of course, she knew her secrets. She didn't mind having Elise's eyes closely watching her; at the moment it seemed that everything that went thought Leah's mind came out more jumbled than it had first been when it came in.

Leah called to her and Elise made a sound that meant she was listening. "Do you think I should stop now?"

"Stop what, exactly?"

"You know, all this revenge stuff about Malfoy and… oh god, I'm going to break Harry's heart when he knows the truth," Leah bit her lip.

"Then don't tell him the truth; just say that you're not ready or something. You'll hurt his feeling what ever you say, but there are degrees of pain that you can put in a break-up. Like you're break-up with Chris for example…"

"Ok, Ok! Just don't bring Chris into this."

"He still hurts?"

Leah didn't reply – there was no need to. Elise could see right through Leah and there was no stopping her. This was something that Leah both hated and loved about Elise. You could just walk in after a horrible day and she could immediately sense you're mood and come over to comfort you. But this also meant that in a situation like this, she couldn't hide any feelings.

"Listen," said Elise. "Harry's not the right one for you, and you know it. Now, sooner or later you're going to realise that, stronger than before and it'll be at a point where it's going to be _really_ hard to break-up with Harry. So for your sake and his, just break it off soon and you'll both feel a lot better. Trust me on this; you don't want to hurt him anymore than he will be now, do you?"

"Ok," Leah sighed.

Leah left the Slytherin common room in very painful and doubtful walk up to the Gryffindor common room. Once inside, her stomach had caught itself in such a tight knot that Leah was finding it hard to breath properly. Not many people were in the room, probably still wandering around Hogsmeade. In fact the only person in the room was Harry. He smiled faintly as she climbed in and she came to it next to him on the couch. "What brings you here?"

"You," Leah said.

Harry looked at her curiously and then he said, "Hey, um, sorry about what happened earlier today."

"No, it's my fault, really," she paused, "Did you really mean it when you said you liked me?"

Harry tilted his head back to rest against the back of the chair and he brought his hand up to scrunch through his jet black hair, "Yeah, I thing so. I mean, I _do_ like you." He looked at her again, only his eyes were full of worry.

Looking at him made her stomach churn with guilt, so Leah concentrated on looking at her shoes. It was interesting; at times like this, ordinary things – like shoes – became extraordinarily interesting to look at. Harry continued, "I'm sorry, if I pushed you too much. I'll take it slower in the future, alright? I mean, I don't want to make you uncomfortable or anything." Leah still kept her concentration on her shoes. "Um, this might sound like a stupid question, but do you like me?" Harry asked.

Leah looked up quickly, "Of course I do." Her stomach tightened with guilt and Leah realised she was lying. Harry looked at her with relief but Leah couldn't stand it. "Harry," she said seriously and he looked at her with questioning eyes. "I like you; you know that, don't you? But I don't think I'm the right person for you."

Harry still kept his eyes on her but he didn't need any more explaining; he knew what she meant. "You mean, _I'm_ not _your_ type, right?"

Leah bit her lip and thought fast of what to say.

"Well, it was nice spending time with you today; I enjoyed it," Harry said, flatly. He had doubted for a long time whether Leah actually liked him, until now.

"Yeah, I had a good time too," she said, also feeling a little flat. And with that, she left the room.

...........................................................................

Malfoy sat on a highly polished leather couch in the Slytherin common room, pondering at the thought of what had happened previously at The Three Broomsticks. Even when he had been laying there, his legs resting on a cushion and his arms folded behind his head relaxingly for the last 15 minutes or so, neither his temper nor the sickening gut feeling would subside. His face moulded into a scowl at the thought of Leah. And all the trouble she's caused so far, Malfoy added in his mind.

_How could she just… do that?_ He asked himself. _Ugh, I just hate the thought of even associating with a muggle-born, let alone going to a place infested with them. Even going to classes with them is enough to make you feel nauseated. Argh, and not to mention Potter's Peace team… how can she stand him? He's so…holy_._ I swear it's unhealthy to be that holy._

He chuckled as he did an impersonation of Harry, raising his hands up to hush his 'invisible' fans supposedly milling around him. _Thank you, thank you,_ he could almost hear him say so. Yes, yes, I love god and the whole world and I'd like to thank… Malfoy launched into a long list of people he could think of Harry thanking – for his fame, perhaps. But even thinking about Harry's 'fame' made Malfoy choke with laughter – he cracked himself up sometimes. That's going to kill him on of these days, he thought to himself and he could feel a familiar evil contentment start to sooth the anger that was boiling inside him.

Now-a-days, Malfoy started directing most of his anger at Potter, rather than Leah. It seemed wrong to be angry with a girl, for some reason. But it was like hitting a girl; you just don't do it. Unless you were a heartless wimp, in which case was totally the opposite of his lovely and agreeable personality as he regarded himself.

But because he was detouring his anger and resentment to Potter, nearly everything that went wrong in his opinion was Potter's fault, whether or not it had anything to do with him. But it didn't matter to Malfoy. Whenever he could spare any sympathy on anyone else, he would instantaneously squash it by telling himself that life wasn't meant to be fair. That way, he could keep up his cool persona in which he thought was the most attractive to himself. Although this only caused more difficult for Draco to get rid of the parasite which became more irresistible to that parasite known as Pansy Parkinson. Her annoying would pop up at every spare moment, completely destroying the cool atmosphere he worked so hard to establish and throw it right down the S-bend of the toilet basin. But then again, he added to himself, rather sheepishly, that life wasn't meant to be fair.

A/N: Please R&R! Thanks to everyone who reviewed – you have my highest respect! Oh shit – I just remembered that my washing is still wet in the laundry room from yesterday afternoon…. shit!!! Okay, gotta go and save the day! Mia xx


	14. Ana's Story

Chapter 14: Ana's Story

Leah's feelings were thoroughly jumbled after her trip to Hogsmeade with Harry. She still had nagging feeling towards him; he had grown on her in the days leading up to day at Hogsmeade. Now a days, Draco was gaining colour but became even more vicious towards her. _Maybe I over did it with the racist comment_, thought Leah but thought again, _of course I didn't over do it; he even said stuff like 'mudblood'. How can he say something like that? – That racist prick._

But her confused feelings were shoved aside as Elise's birthday came up. The poor Kneazle that had been locked up for most of the day in her trunk was only allowed out while at school. But it's time for freedom finally came and was presented to Elise early in the morning. Leah got up before Elise was awake and silently opened the lid of her trunk and picked up the sleeping Kneazle. The Kneazle had fortunately befriended Krysta and hadn't ended up in any fights.

"Wha - ?" the Kneazle started to say, but was immediately shushed by Leah and pointed at the beds of sleeping people.

She crept up to Elise's bed, carrying the Kneazle that gently swished its ferret's tail and carefully placed him on Elise's stomach. She woke up with a grunt from the weight being suddenly placed on her stomach. The first thing Elise saw were two green-grey eyes staring intently at her. But before Elise could scream, the Kneazle said, "Are you my owner?"

Elise's eyes widened and her hand flew to her mouth to stop herself from swearing. By that time, she saw Leah in the back ground and looked at her for an explanation.

"Happy Birthday," Leah said with a smile. Elise feebly pointed at the animal still sitting on her stomach. "Oh! It's a Kneazle, er, well a Jarzle really – It's crossed between a Jarvey and a Kneazle. Oh, but don't worry, it doesn't swear. And you'd better look after it well because it's been living in my trunk for the last couple of weeks."

Elise couldn't find any words, or her voice for that matter, and lay in her bed taking-in all the information that Leah had fed her. At last, she found her voice and said, "You know, I really don't do mornings."

"Ugh, shut up!" Pansy's voice came from a four-poster bed. It's tightly shut curtains was thrashed aside as face resembling a pug, with its hair a mess and eyes puffy. It looked around the room and squinted in the sun's rays splintering through the tiny window. Pansy realised that it was the birthday of one of her fellow friends and jumped out. "Oh, sorry! I forgot it was your birthday, I didn't mean to snap at you," she pasted a smile on her face and came over to the bed to hug Elise.

The Kneazle who was still sitting on top of Elise looked at her with dislike, hissed and started swearing and spewing with insults. "Filthy inbred! Ugly dog! Did a hippogriff tread on your face, because it looks too gruesome to even look at it and realise that it's a face! Get a personal trainer, chubby!"

Pansy's face turned into a deep shade of purple and she looked at Leah accusedly. Leah looked at her innocently and shrugged her shoulders, "it takes time to get used to people," she said. The Kneazle gave one last loud insult, which caused the other girls in the next dorm to come running into, and stood up, waved its tail and turned around so it was facing away from Pansy. Elise, Leah and the rest of the girls tried very hard no to laugh, and both snickered behind their hands – that was all except Pansy.

She stiffly turned to Elise and said, "I've also got something for you." She stood up and walked over to her trunk where she started to shuffle around, trying to find something. While doing so she said, "I'm sorry this isn't wrapped; I didn't have enough time, but it's the thought that counts, right?"

Leah looked at her with suspicion. She would have almost bet all the galleons in her vault in Gringott's that Pansy hadn't even got her a present. Leah unconsciously crossed her arms across her chest as Pansy came back with a stationary set – or more like a roll of parchment, three crumpled envelopes and a spare nib.

However crappy the present was, Elise was gracious and thanked her. But Leah could see her rolled her eyes as soon as Pansy turned to go back to bed. Leah fought back the urge to laugh.

By the time Leah and Elise went up to breakfast, Elsie had gathered a couple of "Happy Birthdays" and a few more gifts from her friends. Even Crabbe and Goyle grunted something as they came and sat down next to them. Of course, the two were never with out Malfoy, who stalked close behind them. But he didn't notice Elise, or her array of presents she had spread in front of her. Instead, he made a beeline to Leah and sat down between her and Crabbe.

"So, how was your date with the saint? Did you get an autograph for me?" he said mockingly although his tone was very stiff.

"Drop it, Malfoy. You're just jealous that you don't have enough morale as he does," Leah said spitefully. She gripped her spoon which was dipped in her bowl of porridge.

His cheeks tinged slightly, "At least I don't need dead parents to be famous."

"That's it!" Leah burst out and her hand, gripping her spoon tightly flung up, followed by a SPLAT! Malfoy's perfectly ironed robe was now splattered and dripping with porridge and laughter echoed along the whole table. But Leah didn't feel like joining in and left for the dorm.

Malfoy watched her leave out of the Great Hall and grabbed a napkin with a huff and started cleaning himself. He muttered under his breath but he wasn't able to contain them under his breath for long, "I mean, how's that fair? All she's done while she's been here is to muck up everything."

"Maybe you shouldn't criticise her," Elise said gently.

Malfoy didn't realise she was there. He raised an eyebrow, "What do you mean?"

"Well, you keep on provoking her. She wouldn't act so rashly around you if you'd stop insulting her like that. It's not like she did anything wrong by going out with Potter, anyway."

"Provoke her?! I'm not the one who's provoking her, she is!"

"Forget it, Malfoy. You just don't get it," Elise gave up and left the table.

But Elise wasn't going back to the dormitory. She went down a large corridor, past a row of class rooms and turned, into a large room brightly lit with many candles. It was the library.

She walked along the numerous isles and started taking out random books on potion making. _A Hundred Potions and Droughts_, _Potions for the Passionate_, _Good Night and Sweet Dreams – a guide to sleeping potions_… books on dream potions was what she was looking for, to be exact.

She then took the pile of books to a near by table and started flipping though the pages. She was half way though a mouldy book called _The Potion Guide for Dreamers_ when she found the potion she was looking for. She scribbled the ingredients and method on a loose piece of parchment and left.

Down into the castle, she went and she didn't stop until she had reached an old door; the door to the Potions classroom. The dungeon was dark, as usual and nobody was there. She hurried to the back of the room and opened the cupboard door and fiddled around. She had brought her bag with her and she hastily stuffed roots, liquids and other odd objects into it. But she was stopped short by a sound of foot steps coming down the stair case, down the corridor and turn into the classroom. Elise quickly shut the cupboard door and ducked down behind a desk as the torches instantly flamed up and lit up the room.

Snape had walked in and he carried with him a huge pile of parchment rolls; obviously some essay he had set earlier. He shuffled about, but Elise couldn't see what he was doing. But his shuffling suddenly stopped and Elise froze to a point where she was afraid to even breathe. His quiet foot steps neared hers and she stiffened her body.

Snape had noticed the door of the cupboard was slightly ajar. Someone had been snooping, he thought and walked over to inspect. Fortunately, he didn't realise Elise hiding behind him, under the desk. The cupboard door creaked eerily as he opened it and he started looking about at the stash. He started muttering the ingredients that were either missing or had lessened.

Elise could feel the bag under her arm, some of the missing ingredients protruding from the top of it. She stifled a squeak when a drawling voice echoed though the dungeon.

"Professor Snape." It was Malfoy.

"Mr. Malfoy, what brings you here to my class room? A letter of threat from your father? Oh pardon me, I had quite forgotten; he is in gaol."

"Don't you dare talk about my father. Just wait until he gets out…"

'Please Mr. Malfoy," snorted Snape. "Don't tell me you think you're father will be escaping with out being caught again?"

Malfoy didn't answer, Elise was sure she could feel the heat of anger penetrate from near the door; her escape.

Malfoy cleared her throat and started anew. "Uh, I'm in need of your help."

Elise took a chance and hoisted her bag onto her shoulder and crawled out from underneath the desk. She hid behind each row as she got nearer to the door. Malfoy had moved from where he stood at the door, so the coast was clear. As she neared the door, she turned to see behind her and saw Malfoy looking at her from the corner of his eye. Elise would have stopped dead if it wasn't for his discreet wink; a signal for her to go.

She bolted to the end of the corridor, once through the door and stood around waiting for Malfoy. She didn't have to wait long. "Why did you come?" she asked.

"Curiosity," he said smoothly. "And I saw you go out of the library and then saw Snape walk in the direction that you had gone."

"Oh, right," Elise said suspiciously. "Thanks anyway."

"Don't mention it," he said and turned away. But he stopped after a few steps and turned around, "I'll give Leah a second chance," he said after a pause. "…and Happy Birthday, by the way."

Leah stood at the top of a tower, looking up at the moon. The crescent moon was only as thick as a finger nail and rapidly disappeared. Now it was near pitch black, except for the light of the infinite stars. A rush of cold came up on her and she looked down to realise her whole body was covered in goose-pimples. The thin cloth of her pyjamas wasn't enough to keep in the warmth of her body and soon she was shivering. He sat down on the cold stone floor and huddled and clung tightly to her clothing. Something was in her pocket, she could feel, and she stretched out her hand to take it out. It was a small blue bottle and inside was filled with pills. She looked at them with wonder; they looked awfully familiar but she couldn't remember where they had come from…

She took the lid off and tipped the contents into her hand. She looked at her pills with longing. In them, lay her future, her warmth, her happiness, her freedom, her death. She didn't want to live in this cruel world any more – she had had enough. All around her were dead-ends and darkness. There was no hope left, no happiness and all she could do for herself was end it there and start afresh. Start afresh with Ana beside her…

Her hand was inches away from her lips and grew closer. Suddenly a shrill scream pieced the silent night, "No!"

But Leah couldn't stop herself - it was her freedom! But that voice…

"No!"

I know that voice… the pills were her happiness!

"_No_!"

One pill, two pill, four pill… twelve pills… she couldn't care… fifteen… twenty…three…

"_NO_!"

Ana's voice… it's Ana. I'll be with you now…

The bottle lay on the ground and a few remaining pills were scattered around her. Leah lay down on the floor and looked up towards the ceiling. But the ceiling had gone. Instead, the infinite stars twinkled above her and she brought her weak hands up to trace the dots to make a picture.

A picture of me and Ana…

Darkness flooded her body – she could feel it. It spread like hunters after a fox, lions on a prowl and eagles after a mouse.

Eagles… to fly like the eagles… fly away…from here.

"No…" echoed faintly in the distance, but it was too late. She had gone…

Ana had gone…

Leah sat up, pale and sweaty in her bed. Elise sat next to her, trying to calm her down. "Ana…" Leah muttered.

"It's ok; it's just a bad dream. She's gone now," Elise said soothingly.

"No! I don't want her to go… but she's gone."

"Just a bad dream," Elise reassured her, patting her head.

Leah lay back down again but clung to her sheets. She hadn't had Ana's nightmare in about a year. And even then, it had been nearly six months before… Ana had lay down in her favourite spot of the dark castle of Durmstrang. But Leah didn't know… she didn't know that she was stuck. And by the time Leah knew, it was too late.

Leah was too afraid to sleep again and lay in her bed, still clinging to her sheets until the rays of dawn reached the tiny window of the room. The sliver of light pierced the dark room and small snores could be heard from beyond the closed bed curtains.

A/N: Please R&R!


	15. Duels and Dungeons

Chapter 15:

A few days on from Leah's nightmare, Malfoy came and sat opposite Leah at lunch. She had just come back from Herbology, where she had had a bad time trying to prune her Screaming Roses, and wasn't in a good mood. Her pot of roses had screamed at her the whole time, mainly because she had pruned it too much and because of that, she was landed with an essay on the correct procedures of pruning a plant.

"What do you want now?" she growled as Malfoy sat down.

He mock-shocked and said with a pout, "Gees, I just wanted to sit her and eat my lunch. It's a free world isn't it?"

"No it's not. If it was a free world then we wouldn't have to pay to come here," Leah said matter-of-factly.

"Whatever…" Malfoy muttered.

They sat silent for sometime, neither of them eating much of their lunch. Leah's ham sandwich lay only half eaten, by the time her temper had cooled down. Malfoy also just fiddled around with the stuffing of his pie. Leah looked up from time to time, just getting a peek of him and then quickly looking back down again. He's alright I guess, she thought. If only he'd stop being so racist…

Malfoy cleared his throat and said, "I'm off."

"Yeah, me too," and got up, heaving her bag full of books from the previous lessons and headed back to the common room to change books.

………………………………………………………………

That afternoon, Leah sneaked to the broom shed and slung a broomstick over her shoulder and walked to the pitch. On her way there, she met someone that made her stop in her tracks. It was Malfoy - again.

"What are you doing here?" he asked pointedly. Although he knew all along that she would be flying that afternoon and decided to take his broom out for a fly also.

"Not you again," she groaned.

"Like wise," he said curtly and headed into the pitch.

She rolled her eyes and proceeded after him. He had already kicked off into the air by the time Leah mounted her broomstick. He was doing a couple of laps around the pitch when Leah was at the same level as him in the air. "Any room to spare?" she asked him as he came to stop beside her. He shrugged and flew off, doing a couple of flips. She followed him closely, playing the opponent Seeker.

"What do you think you're doing?" Malfoy questioned, halting mid-air after Leah had zoomed past him.

"Opposing you. Come on, Malfoy – play with me."

"Alright," he took on the challenge. "But a mid-air war like Quidditch isn't a place for a girl like you." He sneered and flew off.

"The sky's the limit, Malfoy," she said after him and flew after the shining Nimbus Two Thousand and One.

By the time the sun had set behind the ice-capped mountains, Leah had out done Malfoy to a point where he was dangling off his broomstick with two hands. He swung for a few seconds and hoisted his leg to get up again. Leah sat silently on her broomstick near him, tilting her head to the side slightly. Malfoy looked her with mock-spite. He was puffing slightly and gripped his broomstick with renewed strength.

Leah peered at Malfoy's watch and said, "Oops, time to fly," and flew off to the entrance to the pitch.

Malfoy called after her angrily, "Wait, I'm not done with you." But Leah didn't hear him and ran to the shed to replace the broomstick. By the time she had returned to the common room, it was about time for dinner and she headed down to the Great Hall with Elise.

……………………………………………………………

Draco also gave up flying as it was not as fun as flying with someone else, even though he didn't want to admit it. He went back to his dormitory and put away his broomstick in his trunk. But as he gently placed his broomstick, he noticed the black velvet pouch lying at the bottom of the trunk. He picked it up and started fiddling with the straps. He ended up taking out the silver ring and tracing the serpents. His father had given this to him when he was small and spoke to him about old families and partnerships. He didn't know what he meant but he promised to explain in more depth one day… but it seemed that that 'one day' wouldn't be here for a long time still.

The door of the common room opened and in walked Crabbe and Goyle. Malfoy quickly shoved the ring in his pocket and chucked the pouch inside the trunk. "What're you doing here?" he asked accusingly.

"Er, nothing," Goyle grunted.

"Oh, right. Let's go, it's time for dinner."

They left the room and walked up several staircases to come to the Entrance Hall. There they came face to face with the Golden Trio – Harry, Ron and Hermione. The six stared at each other, though only for a moment before they started spitting insults at each other.

"Potty, Weasel, Mudblood, how spiffing to see you," Malfoy said with sarcasm. Crabbe and Goyle stood behind him, cracking their knuckles loudly. This was perhaps, a practiced cue and the only thing they knew to do at appropriate times.

"C'mon Harry, Ron," Hermione urged, also holding back Ron, who was drawing himself up to his full hight, by the scruff of his shirt. But both of them ignored her.

"Malfoy, don't tell me you're still scared to walk about with out your _body guards_," Harry said. "I suppose a duel without them would be impossible – you didn't even turn up last time."

Malfoy's eyes glittered maliciously, "I'll fight you anytime."

"One on one?" Ron asked looking suspicious.

Malfoy flashed his glare at Ron, whose ears tinged with anger. Harry said, trying to sound confident, "Scared, Malfoy?"

"Alright _Potter_, here's the deal," he spat out his name. "I'll fight you tonight at 11. How about the Room of Requirement? I'm sure we'll find what we need there."

Ron's eyes narrowed, "How can we be sure that you'll turn up?"

Malfoy stood silent for a moment thinking, then coming up with an idea, he dug is hand into his pocket and took out the ring. "Here, take this. But make sure you bring it tonight – it's probably worth more than your life." Then handing it to Harry he added, "Maybe you're parents can repay it by selling your mutilated head down Knockturn Alley, or perhaps even _that_ won't suffice."

Ron turned scarlet, so scarlet in fact that his flaming hair couldn't even match up to the fury. But lucky for him, Harry caught him before he could lay a finger on the contrasting pale figure of Malfoy. "You… you'd -," Ron started angrily.

"I'd _what_?" Malfoy tested him.

But Ron was dragged away before he could answer by Hermione who was whispering to Harry, "It's a bit dodgy, don't you think…"

Malfoy sneered and walked behind them. They reached the Slytherin table and took their usual seats near their friends, around about the centre of the table. Once the various dishes appeared in front of their shining silver plates, the three talked quietly to themselves, discussing mostly of what was to come to night.

"Now, we'll have to revise our curses and jinxes. Crabbe, will you be my first? Although, that probably won't be needed," Malfoy said with a smirk.

Crabbe shot a nervous glance at Goyle, but Goyle only shrugged back. Instead, he said, "um, what kind of curses?"

Draco looked at him tiredly, "_Any sort_ of curse, Goyle. Curses are definitely not going to make a positive impact, will it? Just wait, you two. I'll have Potter down on the ground, begging in the first ten minutes…"

Unfortunately for them, Leah was sitting nearby and had heard their whole conversation. She had been listening to Pansy's on-going antics, but soon got bored and tuned into Malfoy's conversation. Her ears perked up a little when she heard 'Potter', knowing that that name from the mouth of a Malfoy was trouble. But listening further to their conversation, she wasn't enjoying what she heard. 'Potter' out of a Malfoy's mouth was bad enough, but the word 'duel' put together with 'Potter' was even more trouble. She had a bad feeling about this, but was soon pushed aside as the dessert dishes appeared in front of her.

Finally dinner was over and the Slytherins returned to their dungeon common room. Leah had homework which she desperately had to finish and sat in a couch with her homework leaning against _The Standard Book of Spells – Grade 6_ on her lap. Near the fire sat Draco and his 'oaf' friends, whispering very quietly and spilling themselves over books, which Leah guessed must be full of jinxes and curses. But towards 10 o'clock, the three went to their dormitory with their curse books in hand. Leah decided to pitch in for the night, by that time and it was getting awfully hard to concentrate on her homework. She couldn't help it, but it seemed that she kept on reading the same passage over and over again in the book on Pixie law which was enforced some numerous centuries ago, that she had gotten from the Library. She had a tingling feeling in the back of her mind that some how, the book _was_ making her read the same passage over and over again. Knowing pixies, thought Leah as she closed the book with a snap.

She headed downstairs to her dormitory and hop into bed to find that she couldn't sleep. She lay there, awake for about half an hour and decided to go to the bathroom for a drink of water. The water was bitterly cold and sent an army of goose-pimples to march up her arms. Her hands were aching from the cold and she shivered as she walked back into the common room to 'defrost' her hands by the fire. She sat in an elaborately carved chair facing the fire and its back to the dark room, now deserted. But it wasn't long until she heard voices, whispering quickly among them.

It was no surprise when Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle came in, all holding out their wands. It could have been the light, but Malfoy looked deathly pale and Goyle was rubbing his backside. "Ouch. The spot where your blasting charm hit still hurts," Goyle complained.

"Stop whining," Malfoy said and disappeared through the door.

Leah's curiosity was of an extremely curious three year old at that time and she leapt up to follow them. They hadn't seen her sitting in the chair, but didn't pay much attention to see if anybody would be nearby. Leah had no trouble following behind them.

Once they had gotten to the Room of Requirement, the three quietly went in and Leah sat around the corner, listening for any signs of teachers or anybody else, for that matter. A few minutes passed and Leah heard voices advancing the room, different voices this time. The voices neared and around the corner came Harry, Ron and Hermione, who looked very reluctant and kept on nagging the others to head back. But neither of them listened and walked straight into the room where they would meet their opponents.

In the next 15 minutes or so, there were several dull bangs emitted from the room. Leah jumped every time they echoed off the cold walls and she looked anxiously around the corner to check if anybody came out. She fiddled with her ring nervously as the time ticked away and she kept an eye on the door. But she didn't have to check for any movement from that door; it was the other side that she heard it from. Dull, shuffling footsteps could be heard, getting louder by each step and soon a sort of grumble could also be heard. Leah didn't have to name the person to realise who it was. She ran to the door and flew through it. When she looked around her, Harry was on the ground being tickled by invisible hands and Malfoy was standing near him, his wand raised and puffing slightly.

Malfoy looked at her with astonishment, "What the -?"

"Quick, Filch is coming!" Leah whispered urgently and ran to Goyle and took his wand out of his hand. She pointed it at Harry and incanted, "_Finite Incantatem_." Harry stopped wriggling on the ground and he held onto his stomach and gasped for breath. "Hurry!" Leah urged and Harry got up, with a little difficulty.

Two and two finally matched up in Malloy's head and he quickly said, "Come on!" and ran out.

Leah looked desperately at the rest of the gathering. "Don't worry about us, we'll get out, just go!" Hermione said and Leah ran out.

Filch was nearly there, she could hear him, and she ran off in the opposite direction, around a corner, then down a corridor… she was going fine for the moment, until she met a pair of yellow lamp-like eyes looking up at her with delight. It was Mrs. Norris, Filch's spy cat and helper. One look at her and the cat sped off in the direction that Leah came from. Electricity ran up her spine and she ran, even faster than before. But once she had gotten around the corner at the end of the corridor a hand grabbed at her and pulled her aside. She was pulled into a dungeon like room, semi-black and cold. But when she drew her breath in to scream an equally cold hand pressed against her mouth and a voice behind her said, "Shh!" The other hand closed the door to the dungeon as Filch's hurried footsteps went past them, hot on the trails… or so he thought. Leah mentally sighed but her body was still tense from being held back by someone. The person who was holding her also sighed but reached out for the handle to realise that it was locked. "Oh no!" the boy's voice said and he let go of Leah and punched the door.

Leah saw who it was, and for once was glad to see him; Malfoy. But soon finding that they had locked themselves in a dark and cold dungeon didn't make her situation any better. Malfoy got his wand out of the inside of his robe and said, "_Alohamora_," but the door stood, still locked. He battered at the door a couple more times, though with out any change for the better. "Great," he said and slumped down on the floor leaning against the surely locked door.

"Well, at least we didn't get caught by Filch," Leah suggested.

"Well seeing that even if we get out of here, we'll be found by Filch; it really doesn't make a difference. And even if we _do_ get found, it probably won't be until the morning," said Malfoy, quite frankly.

Leah weighed out the two; Found by Filch or night with Malfoy… Found by Filch or night with Malfoy… _Found by Filch_. Leah ran towards the door and started hammering viciously, yelling, "HEEELLLLPPP!!!"

A/N: R&R!   
So, what did everyone think? The next chapter should be interesting. Being locked up with Draco Malfoy is always fun… :)


	16. Safe Danger

Chapter 16:

"HEEELLLPPP!!!" Leah yelled frantically. But these dull yells of help were only echoing off the walls opposite the door of the dungeon for the last ten minutes. And Leah's frantic attempts were only growing weaker. Malfoy sat where he had been ten minutes ago, now holding his hands against his ears, so to block the echoes from the dungeon penetrate into his head. "Cut it out!" he finally shouted, but the faint echoes still lasted in his head, swimming about, bouncing off the insides of his head. "It's no use now," Malfoy continued. "Filch's already gone by the looks of it."

Leah looked angrily at the door, kicked it and sat down on the cold floor. "I wish I never came with you," Leah complained, looking at Malfoy sourly.

But on the other hand, Malfoy was astounded. "What do you mean by that? I didn't drag you here with me."

Leah didn't answer; she knew that it was her choice to come.

"But you know," Malfoy said upon reflection, "If you didn't come then we would have all been caught."

"I suppose," Leah grumbled. She wasn't used to taking credit; in fact, she never took credit for her own actions because other people always trampled through her work. She cleared her throat and tried to think of something to say; something to talk about so to kill the hours ahead of them. "Um, it's a bit cold, isn't it?" was the first thing that came to her mind. Damn, she mentally kicked herself, why do I always talk about the bloody weather, or anything so obvious?

"Yeah, but I'm used to it," Malfoy said. "I would have thought that you were too, seeing that you went to Durmstrang all that time."

"Well, at Durmstrang, we wear fur lined cloaks, not pyjamas," Leah replied, looking down at her flimsy flannelette pyjamas. "Anyway, why are you so used to it?" Leah tried to keep the conversation going.

Malfoy didn't reply for a moment, selecting appropriate words, "My mansion's always cold. It's a bit like this castle really; made of stone and not much light."

"Oh. Well, at least it's a home, right?" Leah added, finding Malfoy's reply made the situation worse.

Malfoy said faintly, "Yeah…"

"Where abouts do you live?"

"Wiltshire, how about you?" Malfoy replied, taking a little more interest.

"Cambridge."

"Nice place," Malfoy said absent-mindedly.

After a pause, Leah asked, "Malfoy, why do you have a problem with Harry?"

Malfoy shivered at the mention of 'Harry' and shrugged. "I don't know. I suppose it's because he's a big headed, attention seeking, 'I'm the world's hero' oaf."

"If anyone's attention seeking, it's you," Leah said, her temper starting to warm.

"Me? Attention seeking?" Malfoy asked, not believing what he had heard.

"Yes, you. Comprehendé?"

"Alright, how am I attention seeking. Please enlighten me," he said, his temper starting to get the better of him.

"Ok. You always think you're the greatest Quidditch player, just because you didn't catch the snitch, you're Snape's pet, you're racist when you don't even give them a chance and you always pick on someone that's lower or smaller or weaker than you, just to make yourself fell better. See? I know you like the back of my hand." Leah crossed her arms and looked at him in the semi-darkness with confidence.

Malfoy was enraged, "How can you say that? You don't even know me and you're already starting to insult me. For your information, you don't know anything. I don't see it fair how you can just waltz in to this school and make friends with the enemy, that have been so for the last two thousand years or so. You just barged in and destroy all the routines, the traditions, everything! Why can't you just pack up and go back to where you came from; you don't belong here."

Leah's temper steadily grew as she listened to him and picked at a new freckle on the back of her hand that she didn't realise was there. "Well, thanks for making me feel welcome here!" Leah shouted.

"Well, you're not!"

"Racist prick," Leah muttered under her breath, but was too loud that Malfoy could hear.

"Muggle-lover," Malfoy also muttered, only it was barely a mutter under his breath.

"Big headed, stupid…" her voice grew a little louder.

"Potty's 'let's save the world'…" and Malfoy's voice reflected hers.

"…racist, self-righteous…" her voice was far from a mutter now.

"…conniving, selfish…" and his voice also getting louder by the insult.

"…slimy, inconsiderate GIT!" Leah shouted her finish.

"…ignorant, nosy BITCH!" Malfoy also shouted simultaneously.

The dungeon echoed eerily after the explosion, as both sat up and glared at each other. But from within herself, Leah could feel a familiar bubbly feeling that soon erupted into laughter. She was unable to hold back neither the smile that cracked her face nor the hysterical laughter that soon came afterwards. Malfoy sat watching her dumbfounded, for a moment, but as if he had caught that disease, he too, was unable to stop himself from laughing.

This rare moment, where both were happy at the same time and could laugh, not _at_ each other but _with_ each other, lasted for some time. Even towards the end, the laughter didn't die down easily; some short laughs were followed after a few seconds silence.

"God, I wish this door would just open," Leah said as she got up. She went over to the door and kicked it with all her might, forgetting that she hadn't any shoes. The pain of it all caused her to sware loudly and jump about on one foot.

"Sit down before you do yourself any more damage," Malfoy ordered and got up and took off his cloak. He tossed it to her carelessly and grumbled as he sat down, "I guess you're feeling cold, right? Just put that on, but be careful you don't get it dirty," he added.

She pulled the black cloak around her and sat down, feeling a little more at home. The pain in her foot was still ringing through her leg but the cold stone floor somehow eased the pain slightly. Leah battled in her head, whether to thank him or not, for a long time, until she came up with something better to say. She cleared her throat, "Um, sorry for saying all those things."

He looked up, "Er, it's ok." He had never really heard anyone apologise so honestly, and it caught him by surprise. He cleared his throat and shuffled where he sat; he felt uncomfortable. He wasn't used to being alone with a girl, or a person even, who had previously been his enemy.

Leah sat, looking at him from the opposite wall. She knew that she made him uncomfortable; you could just see it in his face. They way he hesitates, the way he looks down, not straight at you… the signs were all there. She was kind of enjoying all this, only because this time, it meant that she had the power. She tugged at her borrowed cloak, wrapping it tighter around her body.

Malfoy thought fast for something to say; he didn't like awkward silences, especially when one was expected to say something. "So are you still going out with Potter?" Malfoy had a stab.

Leah rolled her eyes, what that the best he could do? "Ugh, there you go again…"

"No I don't, this is a conversational question. I'm curious and usually in a civilized conversation, when one person asks a question, the other replies; not complain."

"You're being smart with me, Malfoy," Leah warned, but also playing with him.

"I'm always smart; can't you see my enlarged brain?" Malfoy asked, being silly.

Leah laughed a little, "I can only see that you're big-headed."

"Are you always so flattering?" he asked.

"Of course I am," she said sweetly, giving him an equally sweet smile.

Malfoy shivered in his spot and Leah smiled evilly. "Cold?" she asked.

He looked at her suspiciously, like a dog making sure that no-one will come up and dig up his bone. "Anyway, are you going to answer my question?" he changed the subject.

"Well, to answer your question; no, I'm not going out with Harry anymore. I broke it off with him…" she trialled off, unwilling to continue. Malfoy snickered and she looked up, "What?" she asked accusingly.

"Nothing," he quickly said. Leah narrowed her eyes. Damn, if only I was a Legilimens, she thought sourly. "Tell me," she ordered after a failed attempt to try and read his mind.

"Alright," he said and took a pause. "Well, knowing you and knowing… Potter, I thought it wouldn't last; and I was right, wasn't I?"

"I suppose you were," she said and Malfoy looked triumphant. "But," she said and the look on his face faltered slightly. "Because I've broken up with him, doesn't mean that we won't stay as friends."

"Fine," he said, his eyes narrowing. "Go ands save the world with Potty and his wonder trio. You're not worth befriending."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Leah said angrily.

"It means that… oh forget it, I didn't mean it anyway."

Leah looked at him weirdly, "ok…"

"Well, we'd better get some sleep – we've got a big day to face tomorrow," he said abruptly and lay down on the cold floor. She clung onto the cloak and lay down also. It wasn't easy getting to sleep on such a cold, clammy, damp, hard floor. Several times she shuffled about, her body getting colder and colder. She drifted off though, despite the uncomforting feelings.

Sometime during the night, Leah woke up. Her hands were freezing, her nose numb, and a headache starting to rage in her temple which was next to the ground earlier. She sat up groggily, rubbed her eyes and looked around in the semi-darkness. She could make out Malfoy sleeping by the opposite wall and could make out him to be shivering. His breath rattled every time he breathed in and was also uneven.

She crawled over, the coldness penetrating through her thin pyjamas into her legs and hands. Once she came beside him, she unwillingly but nobly took off her borrowed cloak and lay it on top of him. He stirred only slightly and slept on, leaving a very cold Leah sitting next to him, her bones betting chilled.

As she sat there on the floor, she cupped her hands together and blew into them. The heat from her breath only lasted for a fraction of a moment but was relief in the slightest. A mumbled grunt came from beside her as she rubbed her hands together.

"Get in."

"Huh?"

"Get in under the cloak, you idiot. Body warmth," he grunted, his tone grumpy.

Leah got under the cloak gingerly, and lay at the furthest possible end of the broad cloak. It wasn't any better.

"Get in closer."

Leah grunted a reply and slowly edged towards him. He brought out his cold hand, grabbed her waist and dragged her closer to him. His body was surprisingly warm compared to his hands but he seemed to have fallen fast asleep and left his arm dangling over her waist. Leah tensed up, but only momentarily as sleep dragged over her now slightly warmer body.

Time was pushed by as the two slept side by side and the sun light could just penetrate through the crack under the door. Both drifted toward to misty and fresh morning of reality from the deep darkness of sleep. But the first to wake was Malfoy.

He awoke from probably the worst sleep he'd ever had in his entire time on Earth. And not only that, what woke him wasn't the sun, but a headache that had developed through the night. The pain was mostly gathering around his left temple and panged when he sat up. His vision blurred and the dark dungeon in front of him swayed but lasted no more than three seconds, and was back to where he had been three seconds ago. Whoa, he thought and lent on his arms supporting him behind his back. He took in a couple of cold but deep breaths and looked down at the sleeping body in front of him.

Leah was sleeping in a somewhat awkward position, her arms folded around her and the cloak dragging off her body. Malfoy who had been looking at her suddenly looked down at his watch and poked Leah in the side when realising that it was near breakfast. She woke up from a pain in her side and saw Malfoy stooping over her.

"Come on, we've got to get out of here," he said and momentarily left Leah's vision. She sat up and saw him standing by the door. A couple of hammers at the door followed soon afterwards.

On the other side of the door, Mrs Norris wandered about the corridors. Muffled bangs echoed across the corridor and she slinked over to the door being hammered. She let out a couple of high pitched "mew"s and sped to where Filch was.

Inside both Malfoy and Leah heard her cries and stopped hammering against the door. It was soon after that some jangling of keys could be heard on the other side and light poured through the now open door.

There stood Flich, his eyes bulging for a moment and then inspecting the scene. He connected the boy and girl together and an evil smile spread across his face.

A/N: R&R! Thought they'd take the opportunity, didn't you? Well, sorry to bust your bubble, but it's going to take a little more time yet… but don't worry, better stuff coming up soon. :)


	17. The Ring

Chapter 17:

Filch's smile reflected the trouble that Leah and Malfoy had gotten themselves into. His smile was of one of evil and pleasure – one that made you cringe when you saw it.

Both Leah and Malfoy stood rooted to where they stood in the dungeon as Mrs. Norris, his lamp-eyed cat slinked around their ankles.

"Dear, dear. What do we have here?" Filch asked, savouring the tense atmosphere.

Leah looked down at her feet and she could feel Malfoy also do so. Filch gave a short laugh of triumph. "Wandering in the night… mmm, very foolish. Thought a little night time stroll with your girlfriend would be good, hm? Well, your luck ran out didn't it?" he said thoroughly enjoying the sight.

Malfoy called out, "we weren't wandering. It… it was Peeves," he quickly said. He went on, "We were just coming back from Transfiguration, the last period and Peeves pushed us in here and closed the door. The door was already self-locked."

Filch's eyes bulged even more, not believing his ears, "now, now. It's too late to make up such excuses like that…"

"No! It's true," Leah called out, after Malfoy gave her a little more than a soft nudge in the ribs.

Filch glared at her and she gulped as she looked straight into his eyes. _Don't blink_, she thought, _don't you dare_. "Don't you start lying too…" Filch started to say.

"I'm not," she interrupted, trying to make her voice firm.

"I don't care; I found you were you weren't meant to be and that's that. Come with me," he said grumpily and walked away. Both followed him, looking down but thinking of excuses to get them out of he trouble they had landed into. They were finally taking into Filch's office – a dark room with walls decorated with polished chains and thumbscrews. On one side of the wall were cabinet after cabinet of reports on every offender in the school while he had been there. She noticed one cabinet was dedicated to only two students. On it was written "George and Fred Weasley" and written also was the dates of their arrival and the departure of the school – only last year. _Weasley… Weasley, where have I heard that name before_, thought Leah. A vivid image of walking down Diagon Alley and finding a new shop containing jokes, gags and other humorous and what could be useful things, sprang in her mind. Weasley's Wizard Wheezes was where she had seen it – she could remember Ron talking about them too. But now wasn't the time to think about these things.

Meanwhile Filch was going through his draws until he found two slips of paper. On it were spaces in which he filled out their personal information; name, year, crime etc. _Crime?_ Thought Leah. _What crime?_

"Look, we're telling you the truth," Malfoy said angrily.

"Argh, shut up," he Filch grunted, not even looking up from his little pieces of paper.

Leah looked at him with disbelief; wasn't there any justice in his guy?

But apparently not.

"It was Peeves, the poltergeist. We didn't do anything wrong, and think, with our help you could capture him and get him out of here once and for all…" Malfoy tempted. The squeaking from Filch's quill stopped after listening to Malfoy's suggestion.

He looked up, with a dangerous twinkle in his eyes, "Hmm, not a bad idea…" he muttered and stroked his chin.

Leah instantaneously nodded, hoping it was her ticket to freedom. But at that moment there was a boom of something being pushed over and clangs and clatters filled the empty corridors. Filch picked up his things, shoved it into his draw and hurried off to where the commotion was. "Peeves!" he bellowed as he stormed off down the corridor.

"Come on, let's go!" Malfoy said, grabbing her arm and pulling her towards the door.

However, she resisted. "No!" she urged, "It'd be better if we wait here, otherwise out cover will be blown."

He gave a sigh and came back. "Fine, but as soon as we're off the hook, I'm out of here," he said and lent on the desk, his arms crossed. Leah sat down in one of the mouldy chairs sitting in front if his equally mouldy desk. The room was less than inviting; it's torturous metal instruments on show on the walls, glimmering threateningly. She gulped as she sat her self further into the moth-eaten chair. Malfoy also looked none too pleased to be in this room. He looked about unhappily, inspecting the instruments hung around the walls.

Filch was taking longer than they expected and both got a bit bored. Leah jumped up from where she sat and went over to the filling cabinets. She went up and down, looking at each and every name on the faces of the cabinets. Halifax, Hammond… Harrison. Leah stoped herself and looked down at the name – her name, Leah Rhiannon Harrison. She quickly opened her file to find a small piece of paper with Durmstrang's coat of arms on it. She picked out the parchment read through the neatly written handwriting. It was a report from Durmstrang about her. In it was written all the offences that she had committed while she was there. She was thankful that the list was only short and the offences only minor. Being late to class, lighting a fire without permission, disrupting the potions class ("who wouldn't when a bat of a woman taught you out of old musty books?")… Wow, thought Leah, they were pretty strict over there compared to Hogwarts. She carefully put back her files and went on looking at the names.

Netherlands, Ningly, Nott… as she went through the names, she suddenly came to a name which she knew well – Parkinson. Curiosity took her once more and she opened it to look at the file named "Pansy Mosag Parkinson". To Leah's disappointment her lists of offences were small and minor, except for one incident. She picked out the piece of parchment, where written was "crime; possession and use of love potions". With it was a small bottle, containing liquid tinged pink. It smelt sickly of roses and sugar and labelled on the bottle was "P.P. for D.M.". Leah's eyebrow rose with glee as she looked down at the little glass bottle.

Malfoy noticed that Leah was unusually preoccupied with something and came over to inspect. He didn't have such a good feeling about the situation they were in and the risk they were taking to mooch about Filch's office. Once seeing that Leah had gotten herself into someone else's files, he came over and slammed the door shut, narrowly missing Leah's fingers. She yelped as she pulled her fingers out quickly and looked at Malfoy as if he were a maniac. "What do you think you're doing? You could have slammed my fingers in the damn files!" she yelled.

"Shh! be quiet!" he said quickly. "Hey, that's my line," he added after realising that she was getting the better of him.

Leah tried to protest, but stopped herself and quickly sat down back in the chair. She could hear Filch's shuffling footsteps nearing and Malfoy also, who go away from the filing cabinets to stand next to Leah.

He muttered as he came in with Mrs. Norris, "Never mind, sweet. We'll get him next time. That ruddy ghost… pushing over all those armours…" he came to his desk and opened the draw in which he had hastily put away the notes. He brought them out and said, "Now, where were we up to…"

But Malfoy interrupted him, "we were up to saying that Peeves locked us in that dungeon and that we're innocent."

"Oh, right. Well, you're going to have to make an official statement to Dumbledore if you want to get the all-clear," he said his eyes bulging involuntarily.

"We'll do anything; it's the truth," Leah said quickly.

"Fine, now get out of here," Filch said and shooed them out of his office.

Once out of the room, both of them gave the shut door a gingerly look and walked quickly in the opposite direction from it. Once they had gotten around the corner, Ron jumped out, along with Harry and Hermione. They all looked very pleased, but their expressions were quickly wiped off when they saw Malfoy. "Oh, don't tell me that you were in trouble with her!" Ron said, exasperated.

Malfoy raised an eyebrow and looked at Ron, "What do you mean by that?"

"Gees, if I knew that you were in trouble with Leah, then I wouldn't have bothered getting up early so to come and save your behind…" Ron said, throwing his arms into the air.

"No-one saved my behind, apart from myself!" he said glaring at Ron.

"No, _I_ save you. Well, Harry and Hermione also. You know – Peeves, armour, distraction… it was all us," Ron explained rather shortly.

Malfoy looked at him unhappily, not wanting to accept that he had just been saved from being in trouble by a Gryffindor.

"So, what made you get in trouble by Filch? Did you get caught last night?" Harry asked, looking a little worried.

"Um, not last night – just this morning. After running away from that room, we got locked in a dungeon and Filch caught us in there," Leah explained.

"Us? We? What do you mean 'we'?" Hermione asked, her eyes narrowing as she thought. Suddenly she clicked, "Hang on, does this mean that you were stuck for the whole night with HIM?" she said, horrified at the thought.

Leah nodded. The three Gryffindors gaped. Malfoy glared. "You know, I do have a name."

"Yeah and it's Slimy gi… ouch!" Ron started to say but Hermione trod on his toe. "Not now!" Hermione hissed while he hopped about on one foot and cradled the other.

Malfoy snickered as he looked Ron up and down, "well, I'll be going now"

"Yeah, you do that, or I'll make you!" Ron shouted after him, still jumping about on one foot.

 Once Malfoy had gone, the three stood about, talking for a little while. Leah asked Harry if she could have the time and realised that she should be heading off as breakfast would end soon. A change of robes would be good too, she thought. "Well, thanks for helping out," Leah said to the three.

"That's alright," Harry said and he looked down as his face started to tinge. Leah smiled, she guessed that he still had a crush on her. Hermione also noticed when she looked sideways at him. She gave her a knowing smile and suppressed her giggles. Leah turned and left the scene.

She went downwards into the castle and came to the door of the Slytherin common room where she found Malfoy leaning against it, waiting for her. She crossed her arms as he said, "What were you doing? Buffing up every window you passed?"

Leah chose to ignore his comment and arched an eyebrow and asked, "Why were you waiting for me?"

"I just wanted to make sure that you didn't tell anybody that we'd gone to a duel last night," he said, his glare penetrating through her. He had a threatening way that she had grown to like, it was just so… him. In character, she thought quickly, god I sound like I like him. "Fine," she said and scooted around him to give the password.

His hand reached out to her. "Wait. You haven't answered my question yet." That death stare again, Leah thought.

"Of course not. I don't want anybody to even think that I could stand the sight of a prick like you. Now, are you going to let me go in, or not?" She said it so sweetly that Malfoy clenched his fists, so not to raise his temper. Instead, he moved aside and let Leah say the password.

She kept a hand out to keep the door open and he stepped into the room. The common room was deserted, exactly as it had been last night. She guessed that people had gotten up lazily and then had gone straight to breakfast. She hurried to her dormitory, changed into clean robes and headed back down again. Malfoy was still there.

"So, are you coming to breakfast?"

"Yeah, I'm starving. How about you go first and I'll follow you in a few minutes."

"Ok," she turned and went out of the room to the Great Hall.

Once she was in there, she easily found Elise who was sitting on her own, but facing the door instead of her usual burying her nose in the Daily Prophet. Elise pulled her close to her when she sat down, "Where were you?" she hissed.

"Ok, Ok, easy on the pulling. I over heard M… maybe now's not the right time to tell you about it," she said. Malfoy had walked in and was eyeing her very closely as he walked down the isle between the two tables. Leah tried to look as natural as possible and was convincing enough that he didn't come over. Instead he sat down with Crabbe and Goyle who looked relieved when they saw him. Elise noticed that Leah was looking in the direction of Malfoy and pondered on the thought.

Throughout breakfast, Malfoy kept a close eye on Leah; when she was reaching out to get the toast, when she was buttering her toast, when she was taking the toast up to her mouth. He supposed that he didn't mind keeping such a close eye on her; she was a pleasant sight. No, don't think that Draco, he quickly corrected his thought to himself. But looking over to where Leah was seated again, he noticed something shining on her hand, or her finger to be exact. _Just a ring_, thought Malfoy, _any girl wears a ring. Except this one has a ruby in the middle. Hang on, haven't I seen that ring before?_ He shrugged. _It must be something in a shop in Diagon Alley or something…_

A/N: R&R! Hehe, so what do you think, hmm? Sorry it took so long to post – been sick and a bit busy lately… those teachers are never on my side. Anyway, R&R please!!! Mia xx


	18. The Black Flame

Chapter 18: The Black Flame

Malfoy looked up to see Leah leave the Great Hall. He quickly stuffed the last piece of hash-brown into his mouth and got up to follow her. He didn't have the first clue to why he was doing this; he just felt like it, he guessed. He followed her right up to the common room.

"Oi, Leah!" he called out to her as she reached up to the door handle. She turned around and rolled her eyes when she saw him. He heard her mumble something, or was it grumble? Either way, he chose to ignore it, "You haven't told anyone, have you?" He's tone was very testy and he could see the corners of her mouth twitch.

"No," she said, looking innocent. Damn, he thought, she's so good at being innocent.

"What about what followed the duel?"

"Why would I want to tell anyone? Nothing happened" she added. Ok, that was a downright lie, rotten to the core, thought Leah.

"Just checking…" he said mysteriously.

She looked at him searchingly, "Hmm, I don't believe you."

"I know you don't," replied Malfoy, but as he said so, Leah felt a cold flush sweep over her and her vision became blurred. The world around her whirled and her knees gave up on her. But while she thought she was going to fall over, an arm catcher her and started to drag her. She tried walking too, and gradually she felt a little bit of strength come back to her legs. Malfoy was half carrying her up to the Hospital Wing where they were greeted by Madam Pomfrey.

"Oh my," she sighed as she looked into Leah's pale face. "You did a good job in getting her to me, Mr. Malfoy. Now, I think we'll put her on a bed the furthest corner. I'll go get some warming potions, so would you mind keeping her company while I do that?" Malfoy wasn't sure if it was a question of a statement, but he nodded and did as she had told him.

Leah looked up from where she sat limply on the bed and quietly said, "Thanks."

He smiled a little, but didn't say a reply. Instead he said, "You scared me, you know, when you go falling on top of people like that."

Leah found enough energy to give a short laugh but stopped when she saw his face shorten the distance from hers. She gripped her bed and also lent forward a little, using her feet to keep her from falling forward and off the bed. When they were only inches apart from one another, Malfoy pulled away as Madam Pomfrey bustled in, totally oblivious to the scene she had walked upon.

Leah, overcome by the embarrassment, went into another faint. She fell of the bed and her head landed against Malfoy's chest. He quickly grabbed her and propped her up on her bed again as Madam Pomfrey tutted him, "You're meant to make sure she doesn't fall off the bed you know! What's the good of keeping someone company, if they're on the floor? I thought that would be common sense…"

Malfoy rolled his eyes and clenched his teeth. It wasn't his fault if a girl just walked up to him and fainted on him… although my coolness may intimidate them, he added to himself. A sneer appeared on his face as he thought.

"Will you stop day dreaming and help me put her in bed?" Madam Pomfrey asked irritably. He snapped out of his thoughts and obeyed her.

Once she was tucked in, Madam Pomfrey poured her a goblet of steaming potion and set it on her night stand. Then she instructed to him, "Make sure she takes all of it once she's awake," and bustled off to tend to someone else.

He looked down at the pale figure of Leah and reddened. He didn't know what possessed him to even contemplate kissing her. Trying to kiss her, he corrected in his mind, I didn't kiss her; just tried to. He wasn't even sure if he wanted to, but at that point in time, it just felt like the appropriate thing to do… it was only a spur of a moment thing.

He abruptly got up, went to an occupied bed and took a bit of parchment and a quill and started writing on the night stand. He scribbled, "Drink all of your potion." He paused and thought of something else to write about. Five words seemed much too short. After pondering on some choices, he wrote, "Don't you dare say a word of what happened." And signed it with his initials; DM. he reread the note; concentrating mostly on the second sentence. It should be 'what would have happened' but it seemed to be too long and complicated, so he left it. He went back to standing beside Leah, placed the note upright against the goblet and left silently.

……………………………………………..

A day later, Leah was let out, or more like shooed out of the Hospital Wing and she made her way back down to the Slytherin common room. She found him siting down in a leather couch. "Want to play chess?" he suggested.

"Alright, and I bet I can beat you," she challenged him with a sneaky smile. "But why are you asking me? Why can't you play it with Crabbe and Goyle?"

"They're an easy match; you get bored of them after a while. And I don't fancy playing with…"

"Ooh! A game of chess! Can I play, Draco?" Pansy chimed as she walked through the door. Draco rolled his eyes and said, "No, I'm playing with Leah."

"Oh," she said and stalked off sulking, only after shooting an extremely dirty look at Leah. Leah smirked once Pansy had gone.

He returned it with his own brand of smirk, "Oh and I wouldn't be so sure about winning, if I were you." His eyes narrowed mockingly.

"But you're not me." She paused with a determined air, "Fine, we'll settle this game in a flash. You're going down."

Indeed, the game was a close and fiery match. Both of them were skilled and had had years of practice and training. But the reason why Malfoy was losing was because he couldn't help but pay more attention to her ring more than the game. Once she had captured his king, she shouted "Huh!" and grinned broadly.

"Damn it!" he shouted at her and banged his fist on the table.

"Hey careful!" yelled his castle which was dangerously swinging from side to side until it toppled over. He picked the chess piece up and put it back to where it had been before.

He asked out of curiosity that he couldn't keep in any longer. "Where did you get that ring from?"

"Oh, this thing?" she asked and looked down to examine it. "It's been in the family for ages. Mum gave it to me."

"Can I have a look?"

"Sure," she said and took it off to hand it to him.

The ring was just as he thought it was. A ruby in the centre and two serpents encircling it could only mean one thing; he had the matching ring. "That's funny…"

"What's funny?" she asked, also feeling curious.

"Well, it's funny because I've seen a ring exactly like this one; a matching ring. And you also know what's funny about it? I own that other ring," he said and took out his ring from an inside pocket of his robe.

He compared the two rings together; they were identical. "My father gave me this ring. And it was given to him by his father, and his father before him."

"Well, my ring's also been in the family for ages… more than four generations, I think."

"Five," he corrected her. "I can remember by father telling me about it, but I can't remember much. He told me something about old families and some partnership or something like that. I'm sure it would have come from great-great-great grandfather Jupitus Malfoy. The Malfoy's have been around for ages, really. Other little pureblood families married as part of the Malfoys, but I've essentially come from a line of pure Malfoys."

"Hmm. I know what you mean. Dad's part of a smaller wizard family, but I think my mum might have been part of a larger one. I don't really know much about this. I suppose I could ask mum about it."

"Are you going to send an owl?" he asked her as she got up.

"No, I'm going to use the Floo network. Haven't you tried using it?" she inquired after seeing his puzzled face. "Hang on, let me just get the Floo powder," she said and ran down to her dormitory where she shuffled about until she found a small pot. She carried it down carefully to the quiet common room and walked over to the fire place. She took the lid off and placed it beside the fire place and kneeled in front of the fiercely burning fire. She took a pinch of the silvery powder and threw it into the fire. It immediately roared into a green flame and she stuck her head into the fire. It was like a warm air vent, blowing the warm air about her face. She said, "Number 2 Fawcett Street, Cambridge!" and quickly saw a few fireplaces zoom by. She closed her eyes soon after about a dozen fireplaces, starting to feel a bit sick. But the whirling feeling soon stopped and she was able to open her eyes to see her living room. With luck, her mother might be inside and she took a chance to call out. "Mum!"

"Yes?" She was in luck. The next moment, her mother came busting to the living room. "Oh, hi honey."

"Hi, I've got to be quick. I'm not using much Floo powder. Would you be able to contact me now?"

"Of course, darling. I'll see you in a few seconds."

Leah pulled her face out of the flames just as the green flames died away and was replaced by the usual crackling one. She turned to face Malfoy who had come to kneel beside her, "she'll be coming soon." She looked up into his face and saw a familiar smirk, "What?" she asked him testily. He didn't say anything but tried hard not to burst out laughing and pointed at his nose. She looked at him very puzzled, and with great effort he choked out, "Ash." It clicked and she started rubbing at her nose to find her hand smudged with the ash from her face.

But just like her mother said to her, it was only a few seconds before she was facing her mother again. She was still trying to rub the ash off her face when her mother asked, "So what did you want to talk to me about?"

"Um…" she started to say but was interrupted.

"Hello, Mrs Harrison. It's a pleasure to meet you, my name is Draco Malfoy," he said with a broad smile and a sweet 'butter couldn't melt' voice. Leah cringed. This was _not_ was he was like in real life.

"Why hello, Draco. Hmm, a Malfoy. My family used to be very close friends with yours; but I suppose that's history. I don't want to bore you young people with old, dust covered stories from two centuries ago…"

"Well, mum, that's what I – I mean _we_ – wanted to ask you about."

"What on earth for?"

"Well, Malfoy has an identical ring to the one you gave me that Nan had before you did," Leah explained.

"Ah," her mother said and sunk into thought. "That's a very old story. But where to start… are you sure you want to know? Oh but I suppose you have to know someday."

Leah and Malfoy both looked at each other, a bit puzzled, a bit unsure of what they were going to hear. Her mother continued on, "well, it started exactly five generations ago, here in England. There were three main families that ruled the country; I suppose you could call them the dukes. Those three families were the Malfoys (she looked at Draco), the de Flamnoirs (she looked at her own daughter) and the Blacks. Now, only two of them exist. The Blacks died out last year, when the last pure Black, Sirius died. He wasn't very supportive of his family though – he betrayed them. But, you get an odd one every now and again." Nearby, Leah could hear Malfoy smirk. She clenched her fist, so not to let her temper rise. "Anyway, it started with both of your great-great-great grandfathers, Jupitus Malfoy and Tavarius de Flamnoir. These two were great friends and very powerful. But the most powerful family out of the three were the Blacks and they both became worried that the Blacks would take over England. So they decided on an agreement; or more like a partnership.

"This happened upon when Jupitus, a great seer of his time, saw a prophesy, that a great change would occur in their favour. He wrote down that prophesy. I think it went something like, 'one of three, three of one…"

"In ten children will become, two of two and one of one." Draco finished. Leah looked at him with awe and was surprised to see that he himself was surprised to have said the verse. "Wow. I don't know where that came from. Oh, wait, I think I can remember father telling me it; it had a lot more verses in it though."

"Yes, I wouldn't be surprise if your father had told you those verses. I can't remember the rest of them, for the life of me though. Anyway, the prophesy told the story that the two families will live on, through partnership, I guess. Both have to join forces and eventually rule the country. But that's a myth, now. Ruling the country's no longer able, and besides there wasn't anything about ruling in the prophesy. And partnership still hasn't happened."

"Well, it won't be happening too soon," Leah said.

"Leah," her mother said in a threatening tone. Leah shot a menacing look at Draco, who returned the look. "Anyway, if you want to read though the prophesy, I think it might be in one of the books in your library. It was quite famous one time."

"What, it's published?" Leah asked.

"Why, yes of course. Jupitus and Tavarius made a huge racket about it and became a legend. They were going to sign a partnership, but Jupitus died two days before the signing and Tavarius died in vain. Well, that's the end of the story, really."

"So, it was left unfinished," Draco said quietly.

"Yes. It's a shame really," her mother said. "Well, I've got to go and weed the garden – my belladonnas are starting to look awful."

"Ok, bye," Leah said and her mothers face disappeared as the green flames died down again. "So…" Leah said, but her voice died away before she could finish the sentence.

"That was an interesting history lesson," Draco said, his voice still quiet.

"Yeah, beats Binn's history lessons."

"Leah, _anything_ beats his lessons," he said.

A/N: R&R!


	19. Truths

Chapter 19:

"Well, I'm off," Malfoy quickly said, after a brief pause.

"Where are you going?" Leah asked.

"Library."

"Why?"

"Didn't you listen to your mother, Leah?" he mocked. He said in a more serious tone, "to find the prophesy."

"I'm coming with you."

Half an hour later, the two of them sat at a desk in the infinitely booked room with a selected pile of books. After they had selected the right row in which held books suited to the category, they had to go down each long shelf and pick out the books which, with some chance, had what they were looking for. Numerous attempts to find the prophesy failed, and in the end, Leah had to bite the bullet and go up and ask the residential vulture, also known as the librarian, Madam Pince. She urged Malfoy to come with her, who looked at her with reluctance. Madam Pince looked up from a group of first years she was badgering as Leah walked up to her. "What?" she said irritably to Leah.

"Er, um… I…"

"Yes, hurry up!"

"Um, I was wondering where the books on famous prophesies were," Leah said, being very careful not to run her words together in fright of the woman in front of her.

"Why?" she asked, her searching eyes narrowing with suspicion.

"History assignment," Leah said quickly.

Madam Pince sighed and rolled her eyes with exasperation, "Fine, fine. Follow me." She stalked off down the isles and Leah followed her, quite put out by the snags of comments she spat at the various students sitting at desks or searching for books. After what seemed like an age, going through isle after isle, they came to stop in front of a shelf with a dozen or so identical books lined up. "Here it is; the Magical History Encyclopaedia. Look up 'prophesy' and you'll find it," she said in a bored tone, like a tour guide that had been doing the tours in the same town for two decades, where the shops hardly changed in all of her time working there. Though, she supposed that working in a library like this did seem like a town that hardly changed its face in twenty years… all those books that stay where they are and are never taken out or put back exactly where they were before. Malfoy came over from the isle behind her, clearly hiding from the vulture that guarded one of the dustiest and the most useless books in the world. Leah accusedly glared at him and said in a cool tone, "I thought you wouldn't be such a chicken in front of a _librarian_."

"Yeah, a librarian that's more a vulture than a human." Leah raised her eyebrow. "Anyway, I have a bit of a reputation for causing havoc around here; it's an excellent place to slip a dungbomb or two…" he reminisced.

Leah shot a disgusted look at him and took out the book marked 'Pe – Qu'. She started flipping through the pages and found a large section marked down for prophesies. "Look," she said to Malfoy as she found a small quote in the middle of the page.

He came over and started reading over her shoulder. "This is it," he said and grabbed it out of her hand. He went over to the closest desk and started reading it carefully and thoroughly. She came over to sit next to him as he got a spare piece of paper and a quill. He scribbled the, poem, it seemed, as Leah got a chance to read though it.

Seen so clearly, one is unsure,

For the future is foggier the more,

Prophesies afore were so simple, so pure,

But this I see now, one is unsure.

One of three, three of one,

In ten children will become,

Two of two, one of one,

And an era would have begun.

Two children of children,

Meet across the cauldron,

And tie knots in mine broken,

Ah, the broken ties broaden,

But in ten children will become,

Two of two and one of one,

Where an era hath begun.

_Jupitus__ Malfoy, c. 1850_

……………………………………………………………

"One of three, three of one…" the prophesy echoed in Leah's mind. And it had been for the last 48 hours or more; during classes, before falling asleep, she even wrote it down on her parchment when she was writing her essay for Ancient Runes, which stuffed up the whole three feet of writing she had already done. It seemed like every time she sat down or had a spare moment to think, the lines from the prophesy would pop into her head, and she would go over and over the whole thing. By now, she could recite the whole quote, although this wouldn't be surprising if you thought about it every damned minute of the day.

But often, she would find herself, not going through the lines, but thinking about what the lines had meant. Those numbers… and what he had written about an era. What did they all mean? Surly the mention of 'three' meant the families, but when the 'one's came in, it made it a whole lot harder, and more complex.

But today wasn't the right time to think about prophesies and their hidden meanings.

But Leah didn't know this, and she sat at her desk that evening, trying to get her head around the thought of the prophesy (once again) so she could finish her essay that she still hadn't finished (even after several attempts which all failed with repeatedly writing lines from the prophesy).

Pansy, who had been sitting across the room from her, closely watching her while also doing her homework, now got up and crossed the room. The room had steadily gotten deserted and it now was only, Leah, Pansy and a handful of late-nighters.

Leah felt the presence of someone behind her and turned around from where she sat – Pansy. She tried to be as polite as possible, when it came to being around someone that you would instantly squish, if they had been a bug. Privately, Leah reflected upon herself that indeed, Pansy's face, at times, wasn't far off from one of a particularly nasty bug. But she quickly shoved the thought aside and brought in her 'nicer side' into play. "Hi, Pansy," she said playing sweet-innocent.

"Hi," she said, but her voice didn't reflect the same sort of pleasure. "I was wondering how long you were staying here."

"The whole year," Leah said, and simultaneously thought of the agonising times ahead of her with Pansy.

Pansy too, felt the weight of despair drop on her chest. "Really? For that long?"

"Yup."

"But won't you get homesick? Don't you want to go back to Durmstrang?" she asked, trying to get her to agree on the same side of the subject.

"No more homesick than anyone else here. And I'm starting to like this place… maybe I'll stay for my final year too." Pansy's chest started to feel desperately heavy, heavy enough to convince her that she had some sort of breathing problem. But Leah changed her mind, "No, maybe not." _Is she trying to get something across?_ Leah thought.

Pansy stretched her mouth in to a smile, with a little difficulty. "So you're definitely leaving at the end of this year?" Pansy asked. _Yup_, thought Leah, _she's definitely trying to get something across._

"Um, I'm not sure yet."

"Can you give me an estimate?"

"No," Leah's temper started to boil.

"Not even narrowing it down to years?"

"Look, if you've got something to tell me, why don't you tell it to my face?" Leah said impatiently, her temper getting the better of her.

'Fine," Pansy said her temper equally as hot. "I want you out of my life and the lives of others. And I've seen the way you look at Draco. Acting all lovey-dovey when he's around… he's mine! If you even dare to even lay a finger on him, I'll personally make your life a living nightmare and I sware, you'll feel so sorry you were even born! And one of these days, when you don't even exist on the face of this planet, Draco'll thank me and be grateful that I had gotten rid of you!"

Wow, this person sure has a lot of anger in her… thought Leah. She gave a harsh laugh and said to her with pity, "When are you going to realise that Draco doesn't even like you? He's being trying to get away from you for ages…"

"Don't you even say is name! You're not worthy enough to say it, let alone tell me what he thinks. You're just telling me this because you want him for yourself – he's mine!"

"You sound like you're his bloody mother! You don't own him and if you don't believe me, then ask him yourself!"

Pansy blared at her, red-faced and trying desperately to find an insult. But once the right length of time in which you could throw an insult had long passed, she had no choice but to act upon her instincts. She threw up her hand and pooled all the energy into her suspended arm. She swung it, aiming for Leah's face, but Leah had contemplated this and grabbed at Pansy's arm, her palm only inches away from her own face.

Pansy glared at her and growled, "Don't be a wimp and fight me like a man."

"But I'm not a man – unlike yourself," Leah said calmly and let go of Pansy's arm as she tried to twist free from her grasp. Pansy looked back at her, her eyes narrowed, as she made her way back to her dormitory. Leah gave a sigh and turned back to the essay that she was trying to finish. But it was not use, since Pansy had interrupted her, the thought of was she was going to write had totally escaped her mind and the desire to write had also vanished.

..........................................................................

"She said what?" Elise sat with Leah on one of the couches facing the fire later that night.

"She said 'one of these days when you won't even exist on the face of this planet'. She practically said that I was going to die," Leah said thinking through the quote.

"God, you've done it now, Leah." She nodded quietly. "But don't worry; I'll look out for you," Elise said reassuringly, patting her head. Elise sighed; she knew what Pansy was like. And hearing a quote like that from her definitely didn't indicate that Leah had landed herself in Pansy's 'good books'. She also knew that knowing Pansy and her determination to do what she thought was right, that Leah could have well been signed off with an official note that she was going to suffer. But the best she could do for her was look out for any signs that Pansy was going to plan some evil scheme… and try and stop it. Elise looked back into Leah's eyes – only seeing something else from what she expected.

Leah looked up into Elise's eyes, but only momentarily before she started seeing pictures of her past, flashing past her like a film. Her fifth birthday, her uncle sucking his ivory pipe, Chris as a child climbing a tree, Pansy's temper-ugly face spitting out silent insults, Malfoy's face getting closer…closer…

"Oh my god," Elise said in a whisper.

"Wow," said Leah who looked at Elise with disbelief. "I didn't know you were a Legilimens."

"Neither did I."

"Should we tell someone?" Leah inquired.

Elise turned quickly and said urgently, "No! No-one must know. I don't want anyone to know…"

"But it's a great gift, and not a common one," Leah looked at her in awe. She couldn't believe what she was hearing – she must be crazy, thought Leah.

"I know, but I'd rather that no-one knew. Please, promise me that you won't tell anyone."

"Of course."

Elise looked relieved and a smile started to form on her face. "I didn't know that Malfoy kissed you."

Leah could instantly feel her face redden and she stammered, "Um, well actually he didn't."

"What do you mean?"

"I was in the Hospital Wing and Malfoy was the one who took me up there. So while we waited for Madam Pomfrey, it leant towards me. But the Madam Pomfrey chose the right time to come in and he never got to kiss me."

"Oh well, don't worry. I'm sure they'll be lots more opportunities," Elise said brightly and clapped Leah on her back. Leah reddened and started playing with her thumb nail.

A/N: R&R! I'm SO sorry for taking so long! I just had my 'depressed' period where I basically gave up on the whole story. Anyway, Sona, you're one of my most faithful reviewers ever and I just wanted to say thanks because you really brightened my day! I will try and update, but I would really like some support to keep me going! No reviews = no stories. So R&R please!!!


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